


Woethough (Temporarly on Hiatus)

by Naji_Dragonchild



Series: Woethough Au [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Little Shit, Aromantic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Asexual Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Betaed, Bisexual Logic | Logan Sanders, Caring Logic | Logan Sanders, Chaotic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Coming Out, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Has ADHD, Crimes & Criminals, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Has ADHD, Deceit | Janus Sanders Has Vitiligo, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff and Angst, Hero Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders Has Issues, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Deceit | Janus Sanders, Organized Crime, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pansexual Morality | Patton Sanders, Protective Morality | Patton Sanders, Slow Burn, Smitten Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Sympathetic Dark Sides (Sanders Sides), Teenagers, Texting, Trauma, Verbal Abuse, Villain Logic | Logan Sanders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 44,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25333516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naji_Dragonchild/pseuds/Naji_Dragonchild
Summary: A villain, a superhero and a group of teenagers who want to prove themselves in the crime ridden city they live in.Excerpt:'Patton stared at the two boys in front of him."You want what now?" he stuttered, hoping against all reason that he had misheard."We want you to train us as heroes!" the one on the left said. His brother nodded enthusiastically."Who are you two even?" Patton asked and remembered just in time to add: "And what makes you think I could train you as heroes?!""I'm Remus, this is Roman and we know that you're Heartrate!" the one on the right exclaimed and grinned widely. Patton noticed that he was missing one of his front teeth.'
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Creativity | Roman Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Woethough Au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952302
Comments: 234
Kudos: 179





	1. Blood and Gold

Frederick Mueller came to slowly.

The first thing he was aware of was the pain in his shoulders from his arms being restrained behind his back for too long.

He opened his eyes.

Somebody had tied him to a chair in a big, mostly empty room. There was only a small table to his right with multiple knives, scalpels and other tools he felt sick looking at.

The light fell in through the big windows, and he could make out the familiar city skyline of Woethough.

“So, you’re finally awake,” a smooth deep voice stated behind him, and Frederick jumped.

“Boss?” he stuttered out and tried to get a look at the man, but he couldn’t turn around with his restraints.

“Don’t call me that!” the man hissed with barely contained rage.

Frederick’s heart rate picked up. The Boss wasn’t a kind man, but when he was angry, he was downright sadistic.

“I know what you did! Did you honestly think I wouldn’t find out! You _betrayed_ me!” the Boss got louder and louder and walked around him until he was finally in Frederick’s line of sight.

He was breathing heavily from anger, the lines of his face hard and fire burning in his eyes. His suit was flawless as always, but it was a black one. The Boss only wore black when he expected bloodstains. In his hand, he held a bat so tightly that his knuckles were white.

“I- please!” Frederick begged. “They threatened me! I didn’t want to tell them! Please! Please, don’t hurt me, Boss.”

The Boss pressed his lips together tightly.“I. Told you. Not. To. Call. Me. That,” he gritted out between his teeth.

“Boss-!”

Frederick screamed as the bat hit his arm. Something cracked loudly.

“B- Professor Logic,” he sobbed out.

“Better,” the Professor smiled creepily. “But about you betraying me... What should we do about that, huh?”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated.

The Professor didn’t like that. He reached out to the table, picked up a knife and thrust it into Frederick's shoulder.

He screamed.

“Oh, does that hurt?” the Professor smiled. “Is it worse than what they would have done to you?”

Frederick tried to answer, tried to find out what words the Professor wanted to hear from him.

He opened his mouth to speak when suddenly someone timidly knocked at the door.

Both men froze.

“Yes?” the Professor asked and turned to the door.

Frederick could hear it open but couldn’t see anyone come in past Professor Logic’s back.

“Oh, sweetheart!” Logic said surprised. All anger had faded from his voice, and he sounded... gentle. “Did you draw something?”

Logic crouched down, and Frederick caught sight of a small boy, maybe six years old. He had the same dark hair as Logic, and the same emotionless look in his eyes, Logic often had.

There was no way-

“Can I see?” Logic asked, and the boy got closer, showing him the drawing.

“Oh, wow, you’re getting better and better, huh?”

Frederick noticed the boy smile at the praise.

Logic put his arm around the kid’s shoulder. “Can I tell you something though?”

“What?” the boy asked, and his smile fell slightly.

“Most fire is not actually red.”

“It’s not?”

“No. Fire can be red, but red flames are the coldest. They still are hot, so you shouldn’t try to touch them, but by fire standards, they’re pretty cold. Most fire is orange,” Logic explained softly. “if it’s even hotter it becomes yellow, and the hottest flames are blue.”

The boy looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Blue?!” he asked.

“Yes, blue!” Logic smiled excitedly. “What do you think, buddy, we two go down to the workshop, and I show you, huh? Then I can also show you something else; you can colour fire!”

The boy nodded quickly. “I wanna see pretty fire!”

Logic chuckled. “Okay. I have to finish up some work here real quick, and then I’ll take you to colour fire, okay? You can decide what colours you want to see first in the meantime.”

“Okay, Papa,” the boy gave Professor Logic a quick hug, glanced over at Frederick and hurried out of the room.

The door closed behind him, and the Professor stood up again.

“So,” he began, clapped his hands together and turned on his heel, “where were we?”

\-----

Logan rubbed the blood off his hands.

It had mostly dried and came off relatively easy with water and some soap.

Virgil was already waiting for him when he got outside.

“Are we gonna go make pretty fire now?” he asked excitedly.

“Of course, I promised, didn’t I?” Logan smiled down at his son. “So, have you decided on what colours you would like to see?”

“Can we really make every colour?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Some are a bit harder, but nothing impossible.”

“Can we make purple?”

“Of course,” Logan ruffled his hair. “But you have to promise me not to try to touch anything.”

“Yeah, sure, I know!” Virgil responded, still too excited to be genuinely concerned about fire safety. Logan was sure that he’d remember in time. “How do we make the fire purple?”

“We add potassium. Potassium is a part of most salt, so that should be easy to make,” Logan explained. “Potassium is an element that burns purple.”

“And we can make the really hot blue fire too? How does that work?”

“Well, I have a bunsen burner, you know that thing I showed you some time ago that makes fire? That can also make blue fire. You just have to turn a valve for a while.”

Virgil seemed to think for a moment, then he looked up at Logan again.

“Can we burn that _thing_ that Aunt Meg gave me last week?” he said ‘thing’ with as much distaste as he could and stuck his tongue out slightly as if simply talking about the sweater was disgusting.

Logan chuckled before nodding.

“We’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t find out,” he said conspiratory.

A wide grin spread over Virgil's face.


	2. Flowers and Hearts

The small bell over the entrance rung and Patton looked up from the marigolds he was arranging.  
The man who had come in was tall and wore a fancy dark blue suit. 

"Hello!" Patton greeted him with a smile. "Can I help you, sir?"

The man seemed to think for a moment.

"Do you know the meanings of flowers?" he asked after a while. "I want to give a bouquet to... an old former friend and I'd likely to send a certain message if possible."

"Yeah, I know a few things. What do you want the flowers to say?"

"Well, I am thankful for something that person gave to me but I'm also not sorry for what I did near the end of our relationship. I still think she deserved it."

Patton pondered over the words for a few minutes.

"Eustoma stand for gratitude," he began, pulling a few out of a vase when the man nodded. "Uhm... I can't thank of any flower that means 'no sorry' but perhaps I could use purple hyacinth which stands for sorrow and surround them with white cherry for deception?"

The man nodded in agreement.

"Then it pretty much means 'I'm sorry. No, actually I'm not', correct?"

"It can easily be read that way," Patton shrugged. "Does that person know flower language?"

The man frowned. "I don't believe she ever did."

Patton stopped. "Past tense?"

"She's dead," the man said. "That's how our relationship ended. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Patton hurried to say.

The man shook his head.

"It's perfectly alright. I don't miss her. She was never very friendly, especially not to waiters."

"I thought you were in a relationship?" Patton asked and nearly bit his tongue. He just opened that hadn't come off as intrusive as it had felt to him. It wasn't any of his business to ask customers about their love life.

"Barely," the man shrugged. "She was always convinced I would cheat. If I had told her I was pansexual she probably would have locked up all kitchen utensils in the house."

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm pansexual," Patton said without thinking.

"I know," the man responded.

"You do? How?" 

The man pointed up. "You have a pansexual pride flag hung up on the ceiling. It was an easy guess."

Patton glanced up and felt a slight blush on his cheeks. He had completed forgotten about the flag.

"And... You're bi?" he tried to sound casual.

"Yes, I am."

"So, since she died you've been all bi yourself?"

The man blinked.

"Was that a pun?"

"I... Yes," Patton's cheeks felt even warmer.

"I've you're asking via pun if I'm single," the man seemed slightly amused, "then yes, I am. If you're asking if I'm lonely, no. I have a son. He is what I'm grateful for."

"How old is he?" Patton asked. Talking about a child seemed like an easy out from the awkward pun.

"He'll turn seven about a week," the man smiled, obviously also happy to be talking about his son. "Maybe I'll stop by again to get him some flowers."

"What kind does he like?" 

"I'm not sure," the man frowned. "I never asked him before."

Patton brought the flowers he had collected over to the counter again.

"So, it'll take about half an hour until this bouquet is done," he explained. "If you have any other errands around here you can just go and take care of them. I'll just need your name."

"It's Logan," Logan said. "Professor Doctor Logan Youngblood. See you in half an hour."

"In a while, crocodile," Patton said out of habit.

He heard Logan chuckle and the bell ring again as he left.

Patton's cheeks were once again bright red. He clapped his hands against them twice hoping it would somehow help.

He could take on supervillains on a weekly basis but one attractive guy walked in and he was an absolute mess.

But those cheekbones were just absolutely unfair. And he was a father. Based on how happy he had looked just talking about his son probably a good one. It just made him so much more attractive.

Patton tried to get himself to snap out of it. Logan would come to pick up his bouquet and maybe once more to get flowers for his son and then Patton would never see him again. He really shouldn't be catching feelings this quickly.

He tried to focus on the flowers in front of him, cutting the stems to the right size, arranging them and adding some Eupatorium for Delay to fill up some empty space. It came out quite nice in his opinion. He hoped Logan would like it too.

The next time the bell chimed it was Miss Cho from the bakery across the street. She often brought him small pastries and today also ordered a bouquet for her parents' wedding anniversary.

She chatted with him for a little while before she had to leave again.

"Oh, hello," Patton heard her say by the door and looked up.

Logan stood in the door greeting Miss Cho with a friendly smile.

"Hello, Logan," Patton smiled at him. "I finished your bouquet earlier."

Logan came closer as Patton got the vase he had placed it in.

"Wow, it's beautiful," Logan admired and Patton could feel his ears burn. "How much is it?"

Patton told him the price, Logan paid and with one last small smile he was out of the door again, probably to deliver the flowers.

Patton hoped he would come in again. Even if just one more time.   
He wanted to see Logan again.

If possible get to know him properly, befriend him or maybe... maybe even something more.

He had always tended to fall too fast for people he barely knew.

Now that Logan was gone part of him wished he had used his empathy to see if Logan really was as kind as he seemed. But that would have been an invasion of privacy, he reminded himself. It would have been wrong. He wouldn't do that to another person.


	3. Twins and Stars

For nearly two years now Patton woke up on Monday mornings with a smile on his face, no matter how many bruises littered his body and how stiff and sore his muscles were from jumping over rooftops and defeating villains.

Monday was only one day before Tuesday and Tuesdays Logan came to the shop.

He always bought at least a handful of flowers, either for himself, his ex's grave, his son or on last Valentine's Day for the class he had been teaching at the time.  
It was a very sweet thing to do in Patton's opinion.

The week after he had asked Logan how the flowers had been received and Logan had told him that all the students had been excitedly trying to figure out who had gifted them the flowers since he had done it anonymously.

Patton often told Logan about his customers in turn or about the stray cats he'd always leave food for on in the back alley.  
He had memorized the way Logan had laughed at the story of the raccoon that had stolen the bowl and had been tackled by at least twenty cats when he had tried to make his getaway.

Patton went through his morning routine, brought out some food for the strays and entered his shop.

He still had some time before opening and used it to fill up the water, sweeping up a few leaves and petals, checking the mousetrap and starting his coffee machine to get it going for the day.

At 8am exactly he turned the sign in the door from 'Sorry, we're closed!' to 'Come in!'.

The early morning was very quiet, most people being at work or at school and the only customers before midday was an old man who wanted to make his wife 'feel like a princess again' on her birthday and was exited over the many flowers Patton showed to him and a little kid with a crumpled five-dollar bill asking for something nice for their 'Mummy'. 

Patton gave the kid a small discount but they didn't need to know that.

They smiled up at him with a wide gap in their teeth and that was enough to make up for the little money he had practically gifted to them.

At noon he made a small break, visiting Miss Cho in the bakery and cooking himself some noodles before going back to work.

He could always tell when school was over because masses of students would go by Miss Cho to buy some baked goods. The primary school was just a block away and the middle school barely further.

Most students simply walked past his shop, some would maybe look around a little and a few bought something once in a while, usually around holidays.

The bell chimed and a small group of friends came in giggling about something.

"Do you think she'd like these ones?" a girl pointed at a big vase with Azalea.

"I dunno," the other girl said. "She's not _my_ girlfriend!"

The first one grinned at the word girlfriend and Patton smiled into his coffee. Young love was a beautiful thing.

"How about these?" the boy who was with them asked and gestured at the begonias. "They look a lot like roses and are probably easier to put in a bouquet."

"They are pretty," the first girl seemed to think about it. "Yeah, I think she'd like them."

The girl ended up buying a small bouquet of them with a few forget-me-nots in between and walked out with a giddy grin, her friends telling her that it would go great all the way out.  
Probably a date.  
Maybe a first one or anniversary.

A little later two identical-looking boys came in and Patton made a double-take before realising that they were probably twins.  
At least they dressed very differently.

Patton decided to let them look around on their own for now, he was running out of coffee and had to put some new water into the machine.

But the boys didn't seem to want to look around at all.

Instead they went straight up to his counter, the one on the right slammed his hands on it and they spoke in unison.

"We want you to train us as heroes!"

Patton stared at the two boys in front of him.

"You want what now?" he stuttered, hoping against all reason that he had misheard.

"We want you to train us as heroes!" the one on the left said. His brother nodded enthusiastically.

"Who are you two even?" Patton asked and remembered just in time to add: "And what makes you think I could train you as heroes?!"

"I'm Remus, this is Roman and we know that you're Heartrate!" the one on the right exclaimed and grinned widely. Patton noticed that he was missing one of his front teeth.

"What?" he asked dumbly and glanced behind them to make sure there really wasn't anyone else in the shop. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

They couldn't know. 

He had been so careful not to be seen going out in costume or returning home.

"We saw you," Roman insisted. "You were on our rooftop and you took off your mask and we saw your face and recognised you because Dad always sends us here when he forgets to buy something for Ma on their anniversary!"

Patton felt like his brain had been slowed to the speed of a snail.  
Good thing Professor Logic wasn't here or he would have already used Patton's bafflement as an opportunity to kill him.

"You saw- Wait! What were you two even doing on a rooftop that late? That's extremely dangerous!" He scolded, slipping into Dad mode.

The boys looked at him flabbergasted.

"Are you trying to parent us?" Roman asked.

"That's none of your business!" Remus claimed at the same time, crossing his arms.

"Oh, I think it is, young man," Patton said sternly. "As an adult and hero, it's my responsibility to keep everyone safe, especially young people such as you two!"

"You admitted it," Roman grinned just as Remus was about to protest again. "You admitted that you're a hero."

Patton's face fell.

"Fudge," he cursed.

Now both boys grinned at him.

"So will you train us?" Remus asked eagerly.

"No," Patton said.

The boys' smiles fell.

"What?!"

"Why not?!"

"Because it's dangerous!" he insisted. "I don't want to put children in that kind of danger! As I said, it's my job to protect you!"

"But you can teach us to protect ourselves!" Roman protested. "And you wouldn't have to do this alone anymore!"

"Besides," Remus added and began to smile again, "we'll try to become heroes either way! Either we do it with your training and help or we do it on our own!"

Patton opened his mouth and closed it again.

He didn't doubt that they would.  
Both boys looked determined to do this.

"Fine," he sighed.

The twins cheered and high-fived each other.

" _But_ ," Patton interrupted sternly, "you will do it on my terms. You won't go out and fight until I allow you too. You will listen to me and if I tell you to retreat you will."

This was important.   
If he couldn't stop them he could at least protect them.

"Okay!" Remus nodded until he almost fell over and haad to stop.

"Sure thing," Roman smiled brightly. "When do we start?"


	4. Dust and Bombs

Roman unlocked the door slowly to avoid making any noise.  
This was always his job because Remus never quite managed to do it slow and controlled enough.

Their Dad probably wasn't home yet but Ma might be and she would want to know where they had been, possibly be mad that they had been somewhere _together_ and not let them go to their room until they told her what she wanted to know or not at all if she didn't like the answer.  
Which she wouldn't.

Both boys were sore and tired from training with Patton. He made sure they drank enough and didn't overwhelm themselves but also pushed them to improve.

They couldn't tell Ma that they were training with a superhero to become heroes themself. 

Not only because she'd tell the whole world who Heartrate was but also because she would never let them out of the house ever again.

They snuck inside and Roman pressed down the handle as he closed the door to stop it from clicking. Both had taken their shoes off outside and carefully put them away all the time listening for footsteps.

Here in the entrance there was no place to hide. The faster they got upstairs the better, but they also had to make sure that they wouldn't run into Ma the second they got up.

Footsteps came towards them from the kitchen.

Roman tensed.

The maid came into the entrance hall. She looked surprised to see them but gave them a small smile.

"She's not home yet," she said. "Don't worry."

Roman let out a breath he hadn't noticed he had been holding in.

"Thanks, Sera. You're the best," Remus grinned at her.

She waved off with a wink and went on into the living room, probably to watch Netflix until Ma came. She always used Remus' profile because he used Roman's anyway and had offered it to her so that Dad and Ma couldn't punish her.  
They had to stick together after all.

They went up to Roman's room because he had the working TV and they had brought Remus' games over a long time ago anyway.

"Dibs on first shower!" Remus claimed and cackled at Roman's betrayed face.

"Fine, but I get to choose what we play!"

"Deal!"

So Remus went into the bathroom and Roman set up the console. 

They played a lot of video games.  
According to Dr Picani it probably was because it stimulated eyes, ears and gave them something to do with their hands all at the same time.  
If you asked Roman is was just because it was fun as hell.

He heard Remus sing in the shower. He didn't know the song but if Ma or Dad heard the lyrics it would probably end with Remus grounded after a screaming match.  
Not that that didn't go for most of the music Remus listened to.

"Hurry up or I'm starting without you!" Roman called.

"Like hell you are!" Remus yelled back.

"Don't test me!" Roman clicked play. He had chosen Legend of Zelda this time. Remus would probably complain that Mario Cart was better but he had agreed to let Roman choose so that was his problem.

"Really?" Remus said as he stumbled out of the bathroom. "Mario Cart is way better!"

"I don't give a shit," Roman stuck out his tongue at him.

"Just go shower," Remus grumbled and plopped down on the floor next to Roman's bean bag.  
He was wearing nothing except for his boxers and a chew necklace, which he promptly popped into his mouth.

Roman grabbed a pair of shorts and a shirt out of his drawer before going into the bathroom.

"Don't you dare change the game!" he called over his shoulder and closed the door.

"Yeah, yeah, I won't," Remus replied and Roman could almost hear the eye roll.

It felt good to wash off the sweat and the warm water felt good against his sore muscles.  
He took the opportunity to wash his hair and when he stepped out of the shower again he felt much better.

Remus had turned off the game while he had been gone and instead turned on the news. 

Roman was about to ask why the hell he suddenly cared about _news_ when he saw what was on the screen.

"Heartrate has just arrived on the scene," the reporter rambled on. The camera showed the bank just down the street and Heartrate landing on the stone steps leading up to it.  
A man who had stood in the entrance, about to go in turned around slowly.  
Professor Logic.

Roman met Remus' eyes.

Both knew what the other was thinking.

"Let's go!"

They raced down the stairs, slipped into their shoes and Roman threw a jacket at Remus so he wouldn't go out in just boxers before running out of the door.

The police had closed off the street in front of the bank and a group of onlookers had formed but the twins managed to snake their way through to the front. Out of breath and with his heartbeat loud in his ears Roman took in the scene in front of him.

Professor Logic dodged a punch and pulled out a knife to swipe at Heartrate.  
The hero didn't manage to move out of the way quick enough and the knife got stuck in his side.

Roman hoped that it was only the body armour.

Before the Professor could pull out another weapon Heartrate kicked him in the stomach and he stumbled backwards, gasping for air.

Inside the bank three shots rang out and Professor Logic grinned darkly.

"Sorry, dear," he said. "You're too late."

With that he pulled out a trigger from his vest and before Heartrate had a chance to react he pressed it.

A giant explosion ripped through the air.

Roman felt a wave of hot air rip at his clothes and brought his arms up to shield his face on instinct. As he opened his eyes he could see the remains of the bank collapse in on themselves.

"It was great to see you again!" Professor Logic called over the noise. "But I'm afraid I have to leave now!"

Slowly the dust cloud settled again and the crowd straightened up again from their cowering positions.

Among the rubble of the bank Heartrate stood, coughing. 

The Professor was gone.

An ambulance pulled up, followed directly by a firetruck.  
The police told the crowd to go unless they had been injured and slowly but surely they did.  
There was nothing to see anymore and if they found anyone among the ruins it would be better to hear about it on the news than witnessing it.

"I hope he's okay," Roman said quietly as they snuck up the stairs again. 

They could hear Ma on the phone in the living room.

"Probably," Remus said. "Ugh, we have to shower again now, don't we?"

Roman looked down at his dust-covered clothes and then at Remus' hair that was almost white with it.

"Yeah, I think so," he confirmed. He thought for a moment before adding: "Afterwards we can try to call Patton. Just to make sure he's fine."

Remus nodded in agreement.


	5. Plans and Crimes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: mention of torture and murder, fire, implied self injury

"You sound like Doctor Doofenshmirtz right now," a voice interrupted Professor Logic.

The thugs standing around the Professor tensed and tried to figure out which one of them had dared to not only interrupt their boss but also disrespect him. Which one of them was as good as dead. 

Logic turned on his heel to face the tween draped over the bloodstained couch at the back of the room.

The thugs had noticed him before. Of course, they had. It was hard not to notice him and wonder who the hell he was but they had all been too afraid to ask.

"Really?" Logic asked with a raised eyebrow. "When I said you could stay here for a few hours after school, I didn't think you'd go around criticising my work."

"That was constructive. Plus, I'm the only one here who'll say it. You wouldn't want to sound like that in front of Heartrate, right? There's no way he'd still take you seriously," the tween replied and used the needles usually meant for torture to slurp up a few of his instant ramen.

"I don't sound like Dr Doofenshmirtz," Logic insisted. "I wouldn't just tell him my entire plan and my private details and I can tell that Heartrate is Heartrate without his hood up! Not to mention that my plans work and I don't build stupid -inators."

The thugs looked to the tween again like in a tennis game.

"But you do invent weird things," he argued. "Also, why do you act like that's an insult? Dr Doofenshmirtz is awesome. And a great dad."

Logic rolled his eyes.

"Do you mind if I go back to explaining my plan to my people now?" 

"Sure, go ahead," the tween shrugged and slurped up more ramen.

Logic sighed and turned around again. "So, as I was saying, the crates are highly explosive. If you drop even just one we're all dead. So make sure to be careful while also getting as many of them into the truck as possible. I don't know how much time we will have but the longer we remain undetected the better."

He pointed out the security systems, made sure the plan was clear and managed not to shoot the guy who still asked if they'd have to get away quickly.  
It was great restraint in his opinion.

"I need a drink," Logan sighed as soon as it was only him and Virgil in the room. "These are the stupidest people I've worked with in years!"

Virgil chuckled.

"How many years?" he asked.

"More than you've been alive. They're bigger idiots than my colleagues from when I still was a law-abiding citizen and was convinced that I could never kill anyone," Logan shook himself at the memories. "Good thing most of them are dead now."

"How many were killed by you?" Virgil asked, raising an eyebrow. "Be honest."

Logan was silent for a moment.

"Oh, would you look at the time, I have to go meet Patton," he then said turning towards the door.

"Hey! You don't get to just leave now!" Virgil protested. "I don't care if your boyfriend is waiting for you, how many of your colleagues did you kill?! Papa, tell me!"

"He's not my boyfriend and I can't hear you! I'm already out of the door!"

Virgil rolled his eyes.

He could hear the door out to the sewers close. Now he was alone in the hideout. 

"He's totally your boyfriend," he said into the silence.

It wasn't like he had anything against Papa dating again.  
As far as he knew his mother had been his last relationship and that had ended just a week before his first birthday with Papa killing her and framing a cop. 

He'd like to have another parent and Patton sounded like a cool guy. Or maybe that was just Papa being absolutely smitten.

Virgil slowly got up and listened to his footsteps echoing around the room. 

He was pretty sure that the former underground station was haunted but Papa never believed him.  
Especially now, when it was empty and the lights began to turn off, one by one, even though nobody was near the light switch, he was sure that someone was here.

"Bye," Virgil told the ghost, grabbing something out of one of the many shelves. "I'm going to meet up with a friend. We're going to burn off our fingerprints so the government can't find us by them."

The lights shut off.

Virgil hesitated. "I can't tell if you're being disapproving or if you're trying to tell me to get out of here and do it."

The door opened and a small beam of light shone in.

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving."

He took the way out that lead to the alleyway behind the Starbucks on Rosealley, walked past the Sithonpark and the mafia pizzeria, whose owner owned Papa twenty grand until he finally reached the abandoned factory where they had decided to meet up this time.

"You're late," Janus' voice cut through the air.

He sat on one of the catwalks looking down at Virgil with a carefully crafted emotionless mask.

"I brought a blowtorch," Virgil offered.

Janus blinked at the blowtorch he pulled out of his coat.

"You're forgiven," he then said and jumped down. "Where did you even get that thing?" 

Stole it from my Papa, who is a supervillain, Virgil thought.

"Stole it," he shortened it to sound more believable.

"Nice," Janus smiled.

"You got a new cape," Virgil noted.

"Do you like it? Got it from some rich guy."

"You mean you stole it?" 

Janus scoffed. "Sure, whatever. Stealing from rich people isn't a real crime anyway." 

"Looks like part of a Batman costume," Virgil chuckled.

"Rude," Janus shot him a dirty look. "So, are we going to burn off our fingerprints now or not?"

"Can we get cake after?"

"Sure, we deserve it."

Virgil turned on the blowtorch.


	6. Invitations and Feelings

Patton frowned at the gash Logic's knife had left in his armour. It was deep, if not deep enough for him to get hurt, and Logic or any other Villain could easily take advantage of it if they had seen the news.  
He'd have to find a way to repair it.

There had been no people left in the building when it had blown up and it was uptown, so the police would actually investigate and not just shrug it off with a "Stealing from rich people isn't a real crime".  
Like this, he wouldn't have to investigate what had been stolen on his own, which was always hard when the building was completely destroyed.

Patton ate the last of his salmon and brought the plate to the sink before going back down to the shop.

It was time to stop worrying about Professor Logic's plan - for now - and start worrying about Logan's plans.

Patton bit his lip as he wondered how he should ask.

Should he lead with the fact that they had been friends for three years or would that sound too much like he would ask Logan to stop coming?

' I wanted to ask you something' sounded weird, even in his mind.

He sighed and filled his mug with fresh coffee.  
Maybe he could make this just a little easier on himself. He wouldn't go deep into Logan's emotions, just to the surface, just to see what his strongest emotions were at the moment. He didn't even have to go deep enough to find out why he felt them.

The bell rung and Patton jumped.

"Hello, Patton," Logan greeted with a small smile. "How are you doing?"

He was happy with just a bit of annoyance slowly fading to the back.

"I'm good," Patton smiled up at him. "One of the cats is pregnant again, Cat-sablanca."

Amusement mixed itself with the happiness.

"You named one of them Cat-sablanca?"

"Yup, I did."

"My day was pretty boring," Logan said and the annoyance came up again. "Sometimes I wonder how stupid people can be and still somehow survive in the modern world."

He shook his head.

"What happened?" Patton asked and nearly flinched at the sudden jolt of fear he got from Logan.

"Nothing special," Logan waved, his face not betraying the fear he had felt at the question. "Just had to explain a simple concept five times and I'm still not sure they all understood what I was saying. I could've just spoken Chinese and they would've understood just as well, if not better."

Patton chuckled and felt the fear ease up again. "Do you know Chinese?" 

"I learned it a few years ago. I might be a bit rusty but I can still hold a conversation," Logan was a lot more comfortable now that they weren't talking about work anymore. Maybe he just didn't like his current job?

Patton knew that he was an honorary professor and didn't always teach classes but didn't know what he did otherwise. Just that it had something to do with science.

"Apropos, conversation," Patton said even though it wasn't really related. "My sister is getting married in a month and I was wondering if maybe you would like to come with me?"

Surprise overshadowed every other feeling for a moment.

"You'd want me to be your plus one?" Logan asked. Another feeling tried to push past the surprise.

"I- Yes. I don't really know most of the guests and it would be nice to have someone I know and like there with me," he felt his ears heat up.

"When is the wedding?" Logan asked the words wrapped in a blanket of fondness that Patton almost choked on.

"It's the 15th."

Uncertainty bloomed up, clearer now that the surprise was fading.

"The 15th? I'm not sure but I think I have an appointment there. I can try to reschedule though. I'd love to go with you," Logan smiled at him and Patton could tell that he meant it. "I'll let you know as soon as possible."

Patton smiled back at him.

"That'd be great," he pushed his glasses up. "My parents will probably assume we're dating but they shouldn't bother us too much."

Another emotion blossomed at Logan's conscience. Patton wasn't sure what it was.   
Longing? No, something different.   
Patton couldn't name it but it made his cheeks heat up even more.

"So, did you want to buy some flowers?" he tried to change the topic so he wouldn't devel on that feeling for too long.

It seemed to snap Logan out of whatever state he was in.

"Oh, of course," he licked over his lips. "I've been wanting to get a small plant for my office desk. Do you have something easy to take care off?"

"Sure," Patton began to move through the shop. "Succulents are very well-known for being low-maintenance. They don't need much water and you can keep them in one pot for a long time without having to worry about them growing too big."

Patton stopped reading Logan's emotions. He had already invaded Logan's privacy enough. 

Logan left again with a small succulent in his arms and Patton collapsed against his counter with a squeal.

He'd done it. Logan had said that he'd love to come with him. 

He managed to take a few deep breaths and pressed his hands against his burning cheeks.

After a few moments, he picked up his phone and texted his sister that he might have a date.

He noticed a missed call from last night from Roman.

Oh dear, the twins had probably watched the news.

He called Roman back.

"Patton?!" Remus picked up.

Roman protested in the background and Paton caught "Just put it on speaker!"

"Patton, are you okay?" Remus asked. "We saw you get stabbed!"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Patton assured them. "It was just the armour, don't worry."

"You're really okay?" Roman sounded relieved.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry I missed your call yesterday, I didn't see it until now."

"It's fine!" Roman said.

"We're just glad you're not dead..."

Patton could hear something in the background.

"We've got to go now," Roman said. "See you tomorrow, Padre!"

"Bye!"

"See you tomorrow, kiddos," Patton smiled.


	7. Sweets and Name-calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: mugging at knife point takes place

"My Pa is going crazy," Virgil said, letting his feet swing against the wall in a steady rhythm while inspecting the bandaids over his fingertips.

"Why that?" Janus asked and struggled with the bag of candy he had stolen from Walmart earlier. He had forgotten his knife at home and the taped-up fingers didn't make it any easier. "And do you have a knife or something like that?"

"Give it," Virgil reached for the bag. He had taken a few of Papa's knives again after he had confiscated them a month ago and cut the bag open with ease. "His crush invited him to a wedding or something."

He bit into a long gummi worm and handed the bag back to Janus who went for one of the lollipops.

"So, now he's like 'But did he mean it in a romantic way or in a just friends way and why did he mention that his parents would think we're dating? Did he mention to them that he was seeing someone and just doesn't want to introduce that person to his family yet?' all day long. It's horrible," Virgil continued. "I feel like I'm watching one of those shitty telenovelas or Wattpad movies and I can't turn it off!"

Janus laughed at him and threw the wrapper of his lollipop off the roof, down to the tracks. 

"Mum is marrying my step-dad soon," he said after a beat. "Would be kinda funny if that was the wedding your Pa got invited to, wouldn't it? Then I could meet him without having any idea that I'd met him."

Virgil snorted.

"You'll have to describe the weirdest guests to me after. If it's the same wedding I'm betting all my CDs, bought and downloaded from YouTube, that Pa is among them."

"Nah," Janus shook his head. "You can keep the shit that's not in English. I don't want that."

"Hey! Just because you can't appreciate _Scheißverein_ for the anarchist masterpiece it is doesn't mean it's shit! And what do I get if it's the same wedding and Pa is among the weirdest people?"

"Dunno," Janus moved the lollipop from one side of his mouth to the other. "I'm bringing you some of the leftover cake anyway... Five nights you can stay at my house if you fight with your Pa or can't stay at home for some other reason?"

"Until when?"

"Until you've used them up."

"Okay, I'll take it," Virgil agreed and swallowed the last of his worm.

"Say goodbye to your CDs," Janus grinned. "My family is weird as shit and there's no way your Pa can beat them."

"You have no faith," Virgil chastised and sat up to see if anyone had come with the train that had just arrived. "Hey, look! Some rich bastards from uptown! Wonder what they're doing here."

Janus sat up and looked down at the boys Virgil pointed at. They looked about their age, though it was hard to tell from up here, and looked nearly identical if it wasn't for one wearing a ripped green shirt and the other a white one.

Who the hell wore white? It just got dirty and then never really clean again!  
Well, rich bastards could probably afford that kind of stuff.

"Maybe they're trying to get robbed," he speculated. "Would be a shame to disappoint them, don't you think?"

"Hopefully they actually have something nice on them," Virgil threw up a caramel with one hand and caught it with his mouth.

"Can't find out if we don't try. It's not like we can get in trouble for it. Other than maybe from our parents but they don't need to know."

Virgil hesitated but Janus knew that he was already convinced.

"Okay, let's see," he said and stood up.

They snuck down the fire escape, Virgil let Janus borrow one of his knives and then they tailed the rich boys for a while, listening in on their conversation.

They even talked like rich bastards, Janus realised. He had half expected them to sound like Virgil with his weirdly posh British accent but they were clearly American. Just with rich accents.  
He wasn't sure how to describe it.  
They talked like the people in Hollywood and not like normal people.

"Now before someone else hears them," he whispered to Virgil.

They caught up to the boys by the next alleyway and pushed them in, using the surprise to their advantage.

The one Janus had grabbed let out a startled noise. 

He tried to swing for Janus' face.  
There was a lot more strength behind the punch than Janus had expected but it was uncoordinated and sloppy. Easy to doge.

"Oi, stop that!" Virgil hissed, making his voice sound deeper than it actually was.

The rich boy looked over and froze, seeing the knife at his brother's throat who's face was pressed against the filthy concrete.

"What do you want from us?" the one on the floor, with the white shirt, asked.

Janus didn't answer but instead began to search Green-boy's pockets.

Gum, a ten-dollar bill, a rat skull (weird for a rich guy) and a business card with a phone number written on it with blue ink. 

"Hey! The skull is mine!" the boy protested. "I just found it yesterday!"

"I don't give a shit," Janus replied. He would have usually left the skull but now he took it just to be petty.

"Ooh," Virgil grinned. "Keys! What do these open, huh, Princey?"

The boy underneath him sputtered. "They are my house keys! You can't have them! You don't even know where we live!"

"Yeah, yeah, Princey," Virgil rolled his eyes. "Calm your tits. I just thought there might be something more interesting to them."

"Stop calling me Princey!"

"Sure, Princey."

At that moment Green-boy noticed something and a wide grin split over his face.

"Police!" he screeched.

Janus looked up to see a man in uniform blocking the way out of the alleyway, a sandwich in hand. "What's going on here?" he demanded.

"They're robbing us!" Princey accused.

"They're rich," Janus said in their defence.

"They're committing a crime!"

The policeman snorted and bit into his sandwich.

"Stealing from rich people isn't a crime! Besides, it's lunchtime. Just get off his back or you might injure him, kid!"

With that he left again and Virgil stood up.

Both Green-boy and Princey were too stunned to react and Janus and Virgil bolted.

They only stopped when they were a block away and between laughing at the rich bastards' faces and being out of breath Janus had to lean against a wall.

"What did you get?" Virgil asked, still snickering.

Janus showed him his new possessions and Virgil showed him the pen, the five dollars, the chocolate bar and the crumpled paper Princey had had with him.

"Not bad," Janus said, giving the borrowed knife back. "We were just lucky the cop didn't notice the knives."

"We would've probably gotten better stuff if we hadn't robbed tweens," Virgil frowned. "By the way, you still owe me that cake you promised for the fingerprints."

"You mean we should do that now?" 

"We've got money now, don't we?"

\--~--

"Damn street rats!" Roman spat and tried to rub the fluid off his face. He wasn't sure if it was pee, alcohol or water but he was pretty sure that it hadn't rained in at least a week. 

Remus was frustrated for entirely different reasons. "What do we train for if we can't even defeat two kids, shorter than us?"

He kicked a trash can over and its contents spilt over the floor.

"I just hope Patton will let me borrow one of his sweaters," Roman grumbled, looking down at the giant stain on his shirt.

"How did the dwarf even get you on the ground?" Remus asked.

"He just suddenly jumped onto my back! You would have fallen over too!"

They finally reached the street where Patton's bakery was and just as they were about to go in Remus froze.

"You've got to be kidding me," he stared at the bakery across from the flower shop, where two eerily familiar boys were sat at a table by the window, each with a big slice of cake in front of them.

The taller one with the weird white spots on his dark skin waved at them with a smirk, before taking a bite of his cake and dramatically playing up how good it was, by rolling his eyes back and licking his lips.

Remus gave him a middle finger and the boy laughed at him.

"Stupid street rats."


	8. Training and Rules

"Oh dear!" Patton exclaimed as soon as he saw them. "What happened to you two?"

"We got mugged," Roman frowned. "Can I borrow a shirt?"

"Of course! Did you get hurt? Who did this?" Patton asked while leading them upstairs. He got out a beige sweater and handed it to Roman before letting him vanish into the bathroom to get changed and cleaned up.

"We're not hurt, they had knives but didn't use them. Only threatened us with them. They were kids, shorter than us!" Remus complained. "And now they're sitting in the bakery across the street eating cake from _our_ money!"

"And the policeman who saw it didn't do anything!" Roman added through the door.

Patton sighed: "Yeah, sadly that's what it's like around this part of town."

"What do you mean by that?" Remus asked.

"There's a reason most people from uptown call the kids from here street rats. The kids around here don't have anything to do, most families plagued by poverty and sooner or later most of them fall into a life of crime. Either for money or just entertainment. Most people also believe that stealing from rich people isn't a real crime and that all people from uptown are rich bastards. So, they probably chose to rob you because they knew that they wouldn't get in any trouble."

Roman came out of the bathroom again, wearing the way too big sweater.

"So, you're saying they aren't actual street kids?" he asked.

"Probably not. There luckily aren't many of them anymore. But even my nephew disappears for hours a day, according to my sister, and she has no idea what he does all the time. Just two days ago he came home with bandaids over all his fingers and won't tell her what happened."

Remus thought about the bandaids over the fingers of their muggers. He decided not to mention them. He wasn't sure if Roman had even noticed them.

"Anyway," Patton said and put on a smile, "let's go up to the roof so we can train."

They climbed up the fire escape to the roof where among a broken sun lounger Patton kept a box of training equipment, from weights over boxing gloves and tape to a pistol with paint bullets that they had never used before.

The roof wasn't big so Patton made them run fifteen rounds to warm up.

"Can me wrestle today?" Remus asked slightly out of breath.

"If you want to," Patton shrugged. "Sure. Just make sure to establish the rules first."

"But in combat, there are no rules," Roman said. "That gremlin jumped onto my back to get me on the ground because it was his best bet."

"Well, there's a big difference between you and that kid. You're going to be a hero one day. Heroism involves kindness. Otherwise, you can just be vigilantes instead. That kid had no interest in being kind and didn't care if he hurt you. That's why he will never be a hero unless he changes his ways," Patton said. "Professor Logic can stab at me or shot at me but I won't do the same. Psyche can try to hypnotize me, Sleep can poison me and make me hallucinate but I will never resort to those things."

"So we have to follow rules in combat but they don't?" Remus frowned. "That doesn't sound fair."

"It's not," Patton agreed. "And you don't have to follow the same rules I do if you don't want to. But as long as I train you I want to make sure that you are good enough to be able to and still win."

"Where are you going?" Roman asked.

"I'll be right back, I just have to fix a hole in my armour and I'll do that while you're sparing." 

The twins glanced at each other.

"No head hits?" Roman suggested.

"Okay, and whoever gets the other onto the ground for five seconds wins?"

"Okay, sure. But don't you dare jump on me!"

Patton went down to his apartment again grabbing his body armour and the things he had bought to fix it before stopping. He had noticed the way Remus' eyes had widened when he had mentioned Janus coming home with bandaids.  
Maybe those kids were still at Miss Cho's. Maybe he could see if maybe Janus was there.

He went down to the shop again and looked through the front window. 

There were no tweens in the bakery and none on the street either.

Patton wished there would've been someone. Even if it had been Janus, he would've rather known than not. Then he could've tried to do something about it. Help the boy get back on the right path.

With a sigh, he went back upstairs.

Remus and Roman were rolling around on the ground, each trying to hold the other down.

Patton took a seat to begin working on his suit and made sure to keep an eye on them to give tips now and then and a few times to tell them to calm down when they seemed close to accidentally injuring each other.  
He had never received any combat training himself.

Most things he had learned via Youtube and trial and error.

His first months of being a hero hadn't gone well.

Though the worst had been Logic, even if he had no powers as opposed to Psychic and Sleep. He also always worked alone except for thugs. 

Still.

The way he had looked at Patton once he had realised he had powers. Like he was a treasure served to him on a silver platter.

"I'd love to do some tests on you one day, darling."

The sentence still sent shivers down Patton's spine. It had sounded too close to how _they_ had talked to him.

He shook the thought off and concentrated on his breathing until it was even again.

It would do no good to think about that now.

"Five! I win!" Remus exclaimed with a wide grin.

Roman scoffed. "Whatever. Just get off. You're heavy."

Remus grinned proudly even if he was heaving for breath.

"Very good, Remus!" Patton praised and watched Remus light up even more. He had made the experience that both twins reacted strongly to praise. He doubted their parents praised them a lot, so he had made it his responsibility. "You too, Roman. You held him off for quite a while."

"Still lost," the boy grumbled and rubbed his shoulder.

"You're technique is getting a lot better, kiddo. Remus still has more stamina. If you focus on that I'm sur4e you'll be able to win soon."

Roman's face lit up slightly.


	9. Marrige and Obliviousness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, first of: I have no idea how weddings work! Never been to one, especially not a church wedding! I'm sorry for the inaccuracies! I'm just guessing here and loosely basing this on the wedding in Sherlock and it's been forever since I've watched that.

"Do I look alright?"

Virgil glanced up from his phone.

"Yeah, I guess," he shrugged.

"I mean it," Logan insisted. "Do I look good?"

"Your boyfriend will like it. Relax."

"He's not my boyfriend. And I simply want to look good for this wedding. I want to make a good first impression on these people."

"You rescheduled a raid for a highly dangerous chemical so you could come and you're worried about what they'll think? And he's totally your boyfriend. You're just both too stupid to realize. Maybe you should just propose to him today. Steal the show a little."

Logan scoffed. "Can you take this serious, please? I will do no such thing! Is my tie straight?"

"Nothing in this house is straight," Virgil glanced up again. "Except for your tie."

Logan halted in his movement. "Wait, did you just come out to me?"

"i- Yeah, I guess. Haven't I before?"

"No. No, you haven't."

"Oh. I'm gay."

"That's great, buddy. I support you," Logan went over to him and ruffled his hair.

"I really never told you?"

"No, you haven't."

"Huh. Can I order Chinese for tonight?"

"If you want to. Sure, you can," Logan noticed the look on Virgil's face. "Do you want me to order for you?"

"That would be nice," Virgil said in a small voice.

"Alright, are you hungry already or should we do it the same way as last time?"

"You won't have your phone with you," Virgil shook his head.

"I will. Of course, I will. Just call me when you get hungry and I'll order for you," Logan returned to the mirror and fiddled with his tie again. "Why wouldn't I have my phone on me?"

"You've been so chuffed with this invitation, I don't want to interrupt your evening just cause I can't order for myself. I want you to have some fun tonight."

"You're not interrupting anything, Virgil. Making a small call for you will in no way keep me from spending time with Patton. I'm sure nobody will mind if I leave to talk to you for a few minutes and then call whatever restaurant you want me to."

Virgil still looked unsure.

"I mean it," Logan turned back to look directly at Virgil. "Just call me when you get hungry. If you don't feel up to calling just text me. In that case, I'll text you back once I've ordered so you know when the food will come."

Okay," Virgil gave a half-smile. "Thanks, Papa."

Logan went over again and gave him a tight hug before pulling away. "Try not to go to bed too late. I bought new lavender tea if you can't sleep. It's in the cabinet over the coffeemaker. Love you, buddy."

"Love you too, Papa. Have a good night."

Logan pressed a quick kiss against his forehead before grabbing his keys and leaving to meet Patton by the flower shop, from where they would take Patton's car to the venue.

It was still rather early in the afternoon and the wind had blown away the factory smoke, letting the sunshine down onto the streets freely.  
It was a nice day for a wedding.

Patton was just locking up the shop when Logan came.

He looked mesmerizing in his light blue-grey suit. There were no leaves or flower petals in his hair like usually and once Logan got closer he noticed that Patton was wearing a bit of makeup.  
There was a light pink blush over his cheeks and on his nose and Logan was pretty sure that he had done something to make his eyes seem bigger but wasn't familiar enough with makeup to be able to tell what.

"You look," Logan cleared his throat. "You look great."

Patton looked up at him and smiled widely, his dimples showing.

"Thank you! You look wonderful too!"

Logan couldn't help the small smile at the compliment.

"Thank you. Let's go then, shall we?"

Patton led Logan to his car, an old VW Beetle.

"Do you want to drive?" Patton offered but Logan shook his head.

"I don't know where it is," Logan shook his head. "I also haven't driven a car in... quite a while. I think the last time was about five years ago. I believe you likely have more experience."

Patton chuckled and got in at the driver's side.

"Why haven't you driven in so long?" he asked, starting the car and pulling out of the parking spot.

Logan thought about it for a moment.

"Well, when I drive to work," he carefully chose his words, "we usually drive with many people in one car. Since I don't have a big car and usually the owner of the car drives I just don't really drive."

"Don't you ever drive your son anywhere?"

"No, not unless it's an emergency. He tends to get very anxious in cars so we try to avoid that."

"Oh, I see." 

They chatted a bit on the drive.

The wedding venue was a bit out of town, surrounded by trees and had been decorated with flowers and colourful bands, near a small church where the ceremony would take place.

Logan hadn't been in a church in... Gosh, how long had it even been?

Considering how often his parents had dragged him to church they probably would've been very disappointed.  
Not that that was the only reason they wouldn't approve of his current life.

The ceremony was nice.

The groom, a young Asian man with blonde dyed hair, cried as the bride, a tall beautiful woman, came down the aisle and they looked beyond happy when the pastor declared them husband and wife.

Afterwards, they drove back to the venue and Logan subtly checked his phone while the best man, one of the groom's brothers gave a speech.  
He didn't know these people so most of the jokes made little to no sense to him.

Virgil hadn't texted him yet but it was still pretty early so he probably would do so later.

The cake was pretty good and Patton introduced him to his sister, Martha, her husband, Luan, and Martha's son from her previous marriage, Janus.  
Janus seemed about Virgil's age if a bit taller but then again most kids were. Logan guessed Martha's first husband had been black since Janus was, safe for a few light spots, the biggest he could see covering half his face. Vitiligo, apparently.

An elder couple came over and hugged Martha and Luan tightly.

"I'm so proud of you!" the woman told Martha. "You look so beautiful!"

She ruffled Janus hair who tried to bat her hand away but failed.

"Oh, Patton, it's so great to see you! Is this your boyfriend?" 

Logan noticed Patton's ears go red.  
He liked seeing Patton blush. He did it a lot.

"We're friends, not a couple," Patton protested.

"You aren't?" Luan asked. "I thought you were. From what you said about Logan it sounded like it."

Patton let out a strangled sound.

"We're just close friends," Logan clarified ignoring the part of him that burned with curiosity over what Patton had said about him.

"Sure," Janus said and clicked his tongue. "I believe you."

He didn't sound like he believed it at all.

He would probably get along well with Virgil. Maybe Logan should introduce them sometime.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and Logan used the opportunity to duck out into the garden.

_Virgil: do you have the number of that chinese place down the street?_

_if not I can send it to you_

_Logan: No, I don't have it._

_Also, why are so many people assuming that Patton and I are dating?_

_Virgil: because you are_

_Have a nice snog w/ him_

Logan rolled his eyes. 

Virgil sent him the number and his order a moment later, Logan saved it and ordered for him, sending Virgil a last quick text before heading back inside.

A band had begun to play and the newly wedded couple was dancing together, smiling at each other.

Logan found Patton who greeted him with a wide smile and pulled him onto the dance floor as soon as the first dance was over.

"Patton, I'm not sure this is a good idea," Logan tried to protest.

"Why? Can't you dance? You seem like the kind of guy who knows how to dance."

"I can-"

"Then what's the problem?" 

Logan noticed hurt seep into Patton's voice.

He probably thought Logan just didn't want to dance with _him_.

"I- Nothing. Sorry, I just did not expect to dance," Logan nervously licked his lips and adjusted his hand to be on Patton's waist, taking the lead.

Patton let him, something he was very grateful for. 

The band played a pop song, so different from the one he remembered from that fateful dance so long ago.

He was in a nice venue with a nice garden in the outskirts of Woethough with Patton. 

Not in a skyscraper. Not in New York. Not with that man.

"Are you alright?" Patton asked gently. "You seem tense."

There was a line of worry between his brows.

Logan took a deep breath and tried to release the tension in his shoulders.

"Yes, I'm fine," he said, half to reassure Patton, half to remind himself. It was just a bad memory. "Don't worry."

Once the song was over Martha asked to have a dance with her brother, telling Logan that she would have his boyfriend back to him in a few minutes and laughing when he repeated that they weren't boyfriends.

Logan wandered over to the punch table and grabbed a glass.

"You shouldn't drink it," Janus stopped him and stepped out of the shadows. The kid apparently had a flair for the dramatics. He'd make a good villain, Logan thought.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Well, _someone might_ have spiked it," he shrugged and a small flask became visible under his jacket for a split second. "You never know."

"What a shame," Logan set his glass down again. "Why would someone just spike the punch at a wedding like that? Purely hypothetical of course."

"Perhaps because it is boring?" Janus pretended to speculate. "So they might be hoping for something interesting to happen. Like that."

He pointed at a goth who Logan was pretty sure was Luan's mother who came over and filled two glasses with punch before taking a sip of both, greeting them and going back towards the bridesmaid she had been chatting with to give her one of the drinks.

"I see. That would make sense, very good theory. But why would that person then tell someone not to drink it?"

"In theory?" Janus raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, in theory."

"Maybe they don't want that person to get too drunk and embarrassingly declare their love for the drink spikers uncle or something."

Logan frowned.

"I am not in love with Patton," he insisted. 

"I never said that," Janus said. "But, for the record, you definitely are."

Logan pinched his nose and sighed.

Janus laughed at him until Patton came back and asked Logan for another dance.

Somehow one of the violets decorating the place had found its way into his hair, matching his bow tie nicely and how was Logan supposed to say 'No' to a smile that beautiful?


	10. Fighting and Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two years after the wedding. (The twins are 16.)
> 
> **Warning: Horrible parenting, smoking mention, fighting, yelling**

Roman pressed his pillow over his ears.  
It muffled the screams but they were still too loud.

Dad yelled something, Remus yelled back, Ma cut in with her voice shrill.

"Give up," Roman whispered, holding back tears. "Stop arguing with them."

Remus couldn't hear him. Nobody could hear him. They wouldn't have listened anyway.

Roman's breath hitched.

How pathetic of him.

He should be used to this by now. He had even expected it the moment Remus had bought the stupid cigarettes. 

How could he hope to be a hero one day when he couldn't even handle his own parents and brother fighting?

Part of him wanted to go over to Patton's house.  
Ma and Dad wouldn't care if either of them were at dinner after a fight this bad, so it would probably go unnoticed and Patton had told them that they could always come to him if they wanted to.

But for that, he'd have to get past Dad and Ma.

He'd have to get himself moving at all and get out of the false safety of his blanket cocoon. 

He couldn't do it. 

But maybe he could text him?

Roman peaked out from under his blanket.  
His phone was just a few inches away from him.

He removed his hand from the pillow over his ear and the yelling downstairs got louder.

Roman winced and opened his phone to find Patton's contact.

Their last text conversation had been about body armour because Patton had agreed to let them go out by his side soon, as long as they retreated as soon as he told them to.

_Roman: Hi_

A loud scream made him jump and he almost dropped his phone. Footsteps stomped up the stairs loudly and Remus' door slammed shut.

_Patton: Hi, kiddo_

_How are you?_

Roman nervously licked his lips. Downstairs Ma was still yelling at Dad. He had probably tried to blame her for Remus smoking.

_Roman: Not really_

_Patton: What's wrong?_

_Roman: Another fight_

_Wasn't involved but it's loud_

_Patton: What happened?_

He hesitated for a moment before replying.

_Roman: Remus started smoking_

For a few moments he didn't get a response, the 'typing' symbol appearing and disappearing a few times before remaining gone for a few minutes.

_Patton: Sorry, Remus just texted me_

_Do you two want to come over and have tea?_

Roman most definitely wanted that.

The question was if he could.

He listened for sounds downstairs. Ma was still yelling.  
A door, probably the front door, slammed shut and she screeched in frustrating before stomping up the stairs and slamming the door of her bedroom behind herself.

_Roman: Ok_

Slowly he managed to stand up, terrified of every small creak of the floorboards under his feet.

He snuck over to Remus' room and knocked with his palm to make it quieter.

Remus opened a moment later. He had cried. 

Roman nodded his head towards the stairs and in the vague direction of the front door.

Remus hesitated then nodded.

They snuck downstairs and Roman kept glancing over his shoulder. It didn't help with the persistent feeling that Ma would appear behind them at any moment, grab them and drag them back to their rooms.

They took their shoes and jackets and slipped outside, hiding in an alleyway to put them on. They had no idea where Dad had gone so they couldn't risk him seeing them.

"Let's go over the rooftops," Remus suggested and rubbed his sleeve over his face. " 's safer."

They climbed up the facade of the nearest building, making sure that no one saw them.

The familiar exertion helped Roman's anxiety ease up and the slight breeze felt good in contrast to the suffocating air back in the house.

They jumped from rooftop to rooftop, so far away from the casual nightlife down below.  
Roman wondered what the people walking down there might think if they looked up and saw them.

Once they reached the train station they climbed down a ladder and took the next train to downtown. There were a few people going home from work, none even noticing the teenagers. 

Remus pulled out a sharpie and doodled on a wall. Roman didn't look but it was probably either a dick or an octopus.  
Or both.  
Probably both.

Roman pulled out his phone and opened a game he didn't care about just to have something to do with his hands.

He wasn't even sure what it was about but it was easy and had bright colours.

They got out at the downtown station and walked past the small park where Roman was pretty sure drugs were sold like candy and reached the flower shop. 

The door to the back alley was surrounded by cats who greeted them loudly. 

Roman pet a few of them in passing and Remus knocked at the door a few times.

Patton opened the door and ushered them inside to make sure that the cats didn't come in.

"Are you two alright? I made Lavender tea," Patton rambled and hugged both of them tightly. "Are you hungry? I could make something for you if you want to. I think I have some ice cream too."

Roman melted into the embrace.

"Can we eat dinner here?" Remus asked after a moment.

"Of course, do you want noodles or something else?" Patton pulled back and lead them up to his apartment and into the cosy living room.

"Noodles sound good," Roman said and followed Patton to the kitchen. The smell of lavender hung in the air and soft steam rose from the kettle.

Roman got out a cup and poured himself some.

"Careful, it's still hot," Patton warned.

Roman hummed in acknowledgement and smelt the tea, feeling it's warmth on his face, and closed his eyes.

Simply being here in Patton's tiny apartment made him feel safer. 

"Move, I want some tea too," Remus pushed against his arm and Roman moved out of the way.

"Do you boys like pesto or tomato sauce better?" Patton asked and set a pot of water onto the stove. "I have both."

"Both mixed," Remus blurted out.

"Pesto," Roman said. Dad had dragged them to an Italian restaurant yesterday because one of his colleagues had celebrated his birthday and for some reason, they had to be there. Roman had had enough of tomato sauce for at least a month.

"I'm not sure they go well together, Remus," Patton chuckled. "Let's go with pesto for now."

"Fine," Remus grumbled and took a sip of his tea. 

Roman carefully took one too. It wasn't too hot anymore and the soft taste made him smile. 

"Is it good?" Patton asked. "With lavender, I'm always worried that I used too hot water. It ruins the tea."

"It's fucking great," Remus grinned.

"Language!" Patton scolded and blew into his tea to cool it down faster.

The water in the pot started to bubble and Patton moved the lid slightly to avoid it boiling over, as he explained to them.  
He had taken to teaching them household chores since both were determined to leave their parents' house as soon as possible and Sera was usually too busy to show them how to get shit done.

Once the food was done they sat in the living room and Patton filled the silence by telling them about his day and details of his confrontation with Sleep the night before that the press hadn't gotten.

Roman was pretty sure that this was what family dinners in other families were like.

Weird, that the guy they had only gotten to know because they had pressured him into becoming their mentor was now more of a Dad than their biological dad had ever been.

Back at home Remus would've already been yelled at for slurping his noodles, while Patton only asked him to do it a bit more quietly. Roman would have gotten a glare and exasperated sigh for bouncing his leg, but Patton didn't react to it in any way.

He'd make a great Dad, Roman thought and felt tinges of jealousy towards any future kids Patton might have.

"So, kiddos," Patton said as he put the dishes into the dishwasher and smiled at them, "who wants some ice cream?"

"What kind do you have?" Roman asked, while Remus already went to grab some bowls.

"Just the classics, Vanilla and Chocolate. You can mix them if you want to," Patton closed the dishwasher and gestured towards the freezer. "Should either be in the first or the second drawer."

Roman checked and pulled the cartons out.

The chocolate had been opened already but only a small scoop was gone while the vanilla was even newer.

"Tomorrow your boyfriend comes to the shop again, right?" Remus asked looking through the mismatched spoon collection for the ones he wanted to pick.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Patton said, turning bright red. "Not that I wouldn't like him to be," he added quietly.

"Then why don't you just ask?" Roman asked. "Take him on a beautiful date, have fun and then when he brings you home you give him a small kiss before you go inside, leaving him standing there for a few minutes, unable to process what just happened because he loves you so much and you just kissed him! And then when he comes again you confess your undying love to each other, make out and have a spring wedding!"

"Bit mushy but yeah!" Remus agreed.

Patton had turned an even darker shade of red.

"I can't just ask him," he said and got a scoop out of one of the many drawers.

"Why not?" Remus asked.

Patton sighed.

"Neither of you have been in love before, have you?"

The twins both shook their heads.

"Well, it makes things... complicated," Patton began filling the bowls with ice cream. "The thing is, I don't know if he likes me back. And if he doesn't and I ask him for a date he might feel uncomfortable, because I'm just a friend to him. Nothing more. And that might ruin our friendship, which would be... I couldn't stand to lose him like that. I'm happy just being around him, so I don't want to take any risks that might destroy what we have."

"But you could be even closer and together more often!" Remus argued.

"That would be very nice," Patton agreed and put the ice cartons away again. "But he also has a son. About your age, I think. So, what if his son doesn't want another parent or doesn't like me? I wouldn't want Logan to have to choose between his son and me. His son would definitely win but still."

Roman stared at him in bewilderment.

"How could anyone not want you to be their dad?" he blurted out, his mind only catching up with his mouth a moment later.

He pressed his hand against his mouth as if it would somehow take back the words.

"You-," Patton hesitated. "Would you want me to be your dad?"

"I uhm... Yes," Roman admitted.

"Duh," Remus shrugged. "Who wouldn't?"

For a moment it was silent then Patton began to smile.

"I'd love to be your dad, kiddos. Now let's eat the ice before it melts."

They sat on the couch this time.

Suddenly Remus shot up.

"Wait a minute! Why do you not know if Logan likes you? You're a fucking empath!"


	11. Bridges and Money

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: very brief mention of murder, rape and mugging, less brief capitalism

Janus leaned back against the wall with his eyes closed and listened.

Mum sobbed.

"How can they just do this?" she asked.

Because the system is corrupt, Janus thought.

"I don't know," Luan said. He sounded exhausted.

Janus knew exactly what this meant. Mum made more than Luan.  
Her paycheck covered the rent and part of their groceries.  
Or at least it had.

Silently he stood up and went to his room, sneaking out of the window. He didn't want to keep listening to this.

Not if he could do something about it. 

Sending a text to Virgil, he moved through the backstreets, not letting anyone see him.

He couldn't let his parents suffer because some motherfucking capitalist had decided they didn't need his mother anymore.  
They needed money, he'd get them money.

Legally or illegally.

It didn't matter to him.

He only stopped when he reached the Northbridge, where he leaned against the railing, stared down into the filthy water and flexed his fingers.

He knew it well, the anger in his veins. The burning hatred against those people in power. Those people at the top of the world who looked down and saw chess pieces to be sacrificed.  
And he knew how to turn it into strategies.

He heard the sound of footsteps getting close.

"What's wrong?" Virgil asked and swung his legs over the railing just next to him. If someone were to come by they'd probably think he was about to jump.

"My Mum got fired," Janus said. There was no point in beating around the bush.

"Oh, bollocks," Virgil cursed.

"She and Luan are afraid that they won't be able to pay the rent anymore. I can't just sit by and watch that happen."

"And what do you plan on doing? Robbery? Getting a job?" 

Janus watched the water move slightly in the wind. 

"I guess you could call it a mixture of the two."

He kicked a bottle cap down and watched the ripples spread.

"If you're not 100% on board you should probably not get involved. It's risky. Not just jail-risky but cemetary-risky. Or hospital-risky," he warned. "I can also do it on my own."

"I've been in the hospital before. If you want to scare me off get better material. Are we going to become thugs or something?"

Janus shook his head. "No, better."

He made a dramatic pause.

"We're going to become vigilantes."

Part of him, the theatric childish part, had expected the declaration to be accompanied with a thunder roll or an explosion. Something, anything to show that the meaning the words held. 

But nothing happened.

The world didn't care about his decision.

He'd have to make them care.

Virgil was still watching him silently as if waiting for him to elaborate.

"Heartrate is so busy with Psyche and all those other lunatics that the capitalists and corrupt people in power go unpunished. If no one else is going to do anything about that, then why not us? If we can save a few people from getting mugged, raped and killed along the way, even better."

Virgil looked down at the water, seemingly turning the suggestion over in his head.

"Wouldn't that make us heroes?" he asked.

Again Janus shook his head. "Heroes need some sort of stupid moral code. I don't care for that. We'll do what we deem necessary."

Virgil made an acknowledging sound.

"If you're in, of course," Janus added quickly. "I completely understand if you don't-"

"Bloody hell, of course, I'm in. I'm not letting you go and die just like that, you ignorant prat."

"Wow, thanks," Janus said sarcastically. 

"Do you already have a plan on where to start?" Virgil asked.

"No," Janus admitted. "I guess we should get some protection and weapons or something."

"Very well planned," Virgil remarked.

"Oh, shut it."

A car drove by and they fell silent until it was off the bridge again.

"You know, if you were to swear to never tell another living soul about it I might know a place where we can get some stuff," Virgil broke the silence.

Janus glanced up at him. "What do you mean by that."

"Oh, nothing," he smiled.

Janus had seen that smile before. It was the same smile he had whenever he knew things he wasn't supposed to know. Things about the underground and the businesses behind closed doors that only the worst of the worst were ever meant to know.  
Virgil wasn't part of a mafia, Janus knew that for sure, but where he got his information was still a mystery. Janus had the feeling that it was dangerous, so he never asked.

"I swear on everything dear to me that I won't ever tell anybody about it," he swore.

Virgil swung his legs over the railing again and grinned at him.

"Let's go!"

Without waiting for a response he turned on his heel and walked down the sidewalk.

For a moment Janus stared after him dumbfounded before hurrying to catch up to him.

"Where are we going?" 

Virgil didn't answer. 

As soon as they reached the end of the bridge he glanced around and headed down to the river bed.

"Virgil, where the hell are we going?" Janus whisper-yelled. He didn't feel safe enough to speak loudly down here.

Virgil still didn't answer and instead headed towards an old dirty door in the foot of the bridge.

He pressed the rusty handle down. It opened without a sound and Virgil pulled Janus inside.  
The door fell shut behind them.

For a moment they stood in the darkness.

It didn't smell as mouldy as Janus had expected. That probably meant that it was used regularly.

Something clicked and one by one the lights turned on, illuminating the big room.

The walls and floor were made of concrete and stone, by the back of the room was a small area hidden by a curtain, a bed and by the front were shelves of equipment. Bulletproof gear, weapons, casual clothes, blueprints, swimming vests and boxes upon boxes.

"Whose is this?" Janus asked looking around in a mixture of awe and shock.

"Professor Logic's," Virgil shrugged. "He doesn't use it much. I found it a while ago. There's probably stuff in our size around here."

He sauntered deeper into the room and began looking through shelves.

"Are you on new meds or something?" Janus asked. "You know that if Logic or anybody he knows ever finds out we're here we can leave the country and change our names and he will still hunt us down?!"

"That's why I made you swear first," Virgil picked up a bulletproof vest. "Hey, this one could be your size. Try it on."

Janus hesitated for a moment longer glancing from the vest to Virgi land back before shrugging and following him to the shelf.

He had known this would be dangerous.

What was one more risk if he was going to piss off powerful people anyway?


	12. Tests and Rice

Logan watched the blood slowly drip onto the concrete floor.  
He put the voice recorder up to his mouth.

"Experiment unsuccessful. Subject bleeding strongly from ears, nose, mouth and left pupil," he poked the right leg. It wobbled. "Bones apparently splintered. Will have to take a closer look."

He set the recorder down again.

Slowly he took ahold of the subjects head and pushed it up. The skull moved, losing its shape slightly but he managed to look them in the empty eyes.

"How disappointing. I was honestly hoping this time it'd work. The bones are new but still not what I need."

He sighed and dropped the head.

"At least bone meal has a few uses."

Logan whipped away a splash of blood that had landed on his face and frowned at it. Cleaning all of his equipment would be a pain. He'd found a couple of ways to make it easier over the years but it was still the worst part of his research.

From upstairs he heard the front door fall shut.

"I'm home!" Virgil announced loudly.

Logan took off his bloodied lab coat and the gloves and made his way up the basement stairs, careful not to get any blood on anything.

"You were out late," he remarked as soon as Virgil was in his line of sight. "Did something happen?"

Virgil shook his head. "Mate of mine just needed some help."

He looked up from where he had taken off his shoes and frowned.

"I thought you said you didn't want to take work home anymore?"

Logan glanced down at his hands again. Some blood had leaked through his gloves again. He'd really need to get better ones.

"Sorry. It was just one subject. A failure too. I'll do my best to get rid of him by tomorrow," he promised. "I lost track of time so I didn't prepare anything for dinner but if you're very hungry we could eat out."

"Nah, I'm good," Virgil said. "How about you wash your hands and I check what we have?"

"Alright, then," Logan went on to the bathroom to get cleaned up. 

He still wanted to examine the body further so he'd have to get it to a safe house. He knew why Virgil didn't like him conducting his experiments at home and understood it very well, the main reason being police and other people who might find blood, equipment or subjects.  
Still, having to drag a dead body through the city would suck.  
Maybe he could ask a thug or someone who owed him a favour to do most of the work for him.

That would certainly make it easier for him.

He washed his hands, wet a towel and used it to clean his face before throwing it in the bloody laundry bin, that was probably a lot bigger than socially acceptable, especially since neither of them had periods.

Virgil was looking through the fridge as he came into the kitchen. He had set out a bag of rice on the counter.

"We still have some leftover meat," he said. "Could mix it with the rice."

"Sounds good to me," Logan shrugged and got out a pot.

"We also still have some spaghetti and tomato sauce but we should probably safe that for your romantic candlelight dinner with Patton," Virgil added. 

"Really?" Logan huffed. "For the last time, I might have romantic feelings for Patton but he does not have feelings for me and therefore I will just ignore them."

Virgil booed. "Codswallop! Just fucking elope! You both want to!"

He slammed the fridge shut.

"Confess! Your! Feelings! Or I swear to god I'll go to that flower shop and tell him that you're stupidly in love with him!"

"You will do no such thing," Logan said. opening the rice. 

"Then you'll finally confess?"

Logan opened his mouth and closed it again. 

"I don't want to ruin our friendship," he finally said.

"Everyone and their mother can tell that you are in love with each other. The only way you'll ruin your friendship is by turning it into a relationship."

Logan focused on food to avoid looking at Virgil.

"Do you really think so?" he finally asked.

"Yes! Fuck, yes!" Virgil yelled. "I've been trying to tell you that for years!"

"Alright," Logan took a deep breath. "I might ask him out for a coffee tomorrow."

"Is this heaven? Did I die?" Logan didn't have to look to see that Virgil was grinning brightly. "I didn't think I'd be allowed in heaven!"

"If there is a heaven, neither of us is getting in," Logan stated.

Virgil chuckled. "I'd rather hang with Lucifer anyway. He seems like a decent bloke."

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes.

"I finished that assignment you gave me, by the way," Virgil said after a while.

"Ah, did you have any problems?"

"Nah, no really."

"Okay, then I'll take a look at it later," Logan promised.

While they ate Logan turned on the news.  
Sleep and Psyche were at the mall uptown, starting shit while showing off to any and all homophobes in a 100-mile radius that they were gay and in love just like they always did.

"I wonder what they'll pull when they get engaged," Virgil said. "They'll definitely make sure that the entire city knows."

"If Sleep doesn't make everyone hallucinate rainbows for at least the next two weeks he's probably been replaced by a clone," Logan added. 

"Two months for homophobes."

"Oh, look, Heartrate has arrived."

"Who's that with him?" Virgil frowned at the two smaller figures. "Does Heartrate have sidekicks now?"

"Looks like it," Logan raised an eyebrow. "And two at the same time, too."

"Maybe there was a sale," Virgil joked. "I wonder what they call themselves."

"I hope they won't be too much of a problem for me," Logan decided to watch the clip later again. Maybe then he could pick up on their different fighting styles. "But maybe I'll be able to do some tests on them. I don't think I've ever used subjects that young."

He nearly bit his tongue. That wasn't exactly true.

"Do you think age will make a difference?" Virgil asked. So he really didn't remember.

"I'm not sure. I won't know until I test it," Logan forced out.

"They're not bad," Virgil said as the sidekicks took down Psyche.

"But they just pissed off Sleep, so they can't be too clever. And they're obviously very inexperienced."

To Logan's disappointment, Heartrate took down Sleep before he could get to either of the teens.  
It was a bit anticlimactic in his opinion. 

The news station switched topics and began talking about some sport he didn't care about, so he switched it off again.

"Do you have any plans for tomorrow?" Logan asked.

"I'm meeting a friend after he's done with school. Other than that not really," Virgil shrugged. "Why?"

"Do you think you could go get groceries?"

"Okay, sure. But you have to tell me how asking Patton out went. I want details."


	13. Cheers and Coffee

Remus wiggled and bounced excitedly and Patton pulled him away from the edge of the roof a little to make sure he didn't accidentally fall. 

"We're heroes!" the teen grinned widely. "We took down a supervillain!" 

Roman made a few incoherent noises, flapping his hands so widely that he almost slapped himself.

"You were good!" Patton praised. "Your teamwork was excellent! If you continue to deck each other like that and have each other's backs you'll make a perfect duo! You did a lot better than me when I started out."

Roman threw himself against his chest and enveloped him in a tight hug, still bouncing on his heels. Patton hugged him back and smiled.

"I'm so proud of you, kiddos," he said. 

Remus collided with him from behind and wrapped his arms around Patton and Roman, also still wiggling. Patton had to bounce along with them a little.

He chuckled.

"I wonder how the press will react to this," he mused. 

Patton doubted that they could safely roof jump like this so he waited for them to calm down a little.

It was already late but he had promised to help them sneak into their rooms so they wouldn't get in trouble with the parents. The dark would probably be helpful for that. 

"Do you want to eat dinner at my house?" he asked when their bouncing slowed a little.

"Can we?" Roman asked. 

"Sure, we can also eat out if you want to. There's a really good Italian restaurant near my house."

The boys agreed and followed him over the rooftops.

They had already gone over all the precautions on how to get back inside unnoticed multiple times and made it back into Patton's apartment without any incidents. 

Patton went into his bedroom to change into civilian clothes while the boys changed in the living room.  
It took him a moment to take off the armour and he turned off the LEDs illuminating the heart on his chest armour. Once he had it all off he stretched and eyes fell onto the mirror in the corner of the room.  
Patton frowned at the ugly scars on his shoulders and arms. He knew that there were more on his back.

They were from before.

Before he became a hero. Given to him by the people who had given him his powers.

He forced himself to look away and take a few deep breaths.

He pulled on a longsleeved shirt, put on a smile and went to meet Roman and Remus in the living room.

He took them to the Italian restaurant that was mostly a pizzeria near the Sithonpark and Remus pulled out their Ma's credit card when Patton went to pay.

He brought them home and even though he knew that their parents were rich, he hadn't expected a penthouse.  
He didn't say anything about it, just wished them a good night before going back home.

On the radio, a woman reported that Psyche had already broken himself and Sleep out of prison.  
He sighed and let himself fall onto his bed. It had been a long day.

Patton woke up later than he usually did the next morning.

He had to hurry a little to open the store on time and not disappoint the alley cats.

It was Friday.  
There was a woman who'd reserved a bouquet that she'd collect around noon but otherwise he had no appointments.

The day passed slowly. The woman he had expected came and left again after gushing about her wife for a while.

He ate lunch, chatted with Miss Cho and made a few bouquets to have them ready in case someone came in and didn't want anything too specific.

After a while the bell rung and Patton was about to give his standard "Hello, can I help you with anything?" when he realized that it was Logan.

"Oh, hello! I didn't expect you today!" he smiled brightly and came around the counter to give Logan a small hug. He never let himself linger for too long when it was Logan.

"Hello, Patton," Logan cleared his throat. He was nervous. Patton didn't even have to consciously read his feelings for it to jump at him like an overexcited dog.

"Do you need something?" Patton asked.

"I- I actually wanted to ask you something," Logan looked at the marigolds standing on a table to his right.

"Oh, what is it?" he smiled brightly, hoping it would put Logan at ease somewhat.

Logan nervously licked his lips.

"I was just wondering if maybe sometime you would like to go out for a coffee with me."

Patton opened his mouth and closed it again, at a loss for words.

"You mean as in a date?" he blurted.

Logan blushed slightly.

"I suppose if you'd be okay with that... Yes. Yes, I mean it as in a date."

Patton could only stare at him, his heart beating loudly and rapidly in his ears.

"I completely understand if you don't want to. I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked you-"

"No, I love y- I mean, I'd love to!"

Logan finally looked at him again. "Really?"

"Yes, I uhm... I close the shop a six today, so maybe we could go get a coffee then," he felt his cheeks burn.

"Okay," Logan gave a half-smile. "I'll be here then. See you later."

"See you later," Patton replied and watched Logan walk out, looking back at him a few times on his way out.

Patton pinched himself and winced at the pain.

That meant he wasn't dreaming.

How was this real? Logan had just asked him out on a date! How was this not just a fantasy that would leave him feeling hollow as soon as it ended?

Did this mean that Logan liked him back?

With shaking hands he wet into the backroom and made himself a coffee.

It was way too bitter and he realised that he had forgotten to add milk and sugar.

He sat down and stared at the black liquid for a while, waiting for the fact that he had a date with Logan to sink in.


	14. Bills and Scales

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Police (yuck), a mob

Janus heard his heart hammer in his ears. If he was this nervous, Virgil was probably moments away from a full-on panic attack.  
But it was too late to turn back now.

They were already here. They were already in masks and suits. They had the plan ready. They had already done the most important step already, for fucks sake.

They were so going to jail.

Janus stared down from the small balcony at the people bustling around the bank, going about their business and accepted that he'd spend the next years in a prison cell.

"Ready?" Virgil asked and his voice shook slightly.

"Ready," Janus did his best to sound confident. "Let's do this."

He stood up and climbed up the bannister.  
If he were to fall he'd crash into the ATM about five meters under him.

He cleared his throat and went over what he was going to say once more in his mind before he spoke.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and those of you too cool for the gender binary!" he began loudly. His voice echoed in the large hall. People looked up in surprise. "Your money is no longer yours. You have too much anyway, I believe. Don't worry, we didn't take all of it. Just enough. If you want to see it again, we'll see you again on Tanglens Avenue!"

He jumped down again and vanished backwards into the shadows.

His hands were shaking slightly.

Virgil gave him a thumbs up and gestured towards the window which he had broken the lock open off.

Janus nodded and slipped through it onto the roof. Behind him, he could hear security running up the stairs.

He almost fell on the steep shingles but managed to catch himself just in time.

They were dead. They were so fucking dead.

\---

Logan stared at the small TV screen, past the reporter at the small still of the boy on the bannister they had left after the footage had played.

He knew that mask. 

The design was new, sure, but he still recognized it.

It had been a plain full face mask a wannabe supervillain had worn.

The portion covering the right eye and cheek had shattered when he, Sleep and Psyche had beaten the bastard up for trying to start shit with them, in the delusional attempt to become _the_ supervillain.

Logan had taken the remains of the mask with him as a souvenir and then left it in the safe house under the Northbridge.

"I wonder what that boy meant by that," Patton said with a deep frown on his face. "That's very close to here, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Logan realized. "Would you like to go there and see what's going on?"

Patton looked unsure for a moment before nodded.

"Yes, I'd like that," he said.

Logan quickly paid for their coffees and the muffins and Patton got their jackets. 

They went out and down the street towards Tanglens Avenue. Patton because he was worried, Logan because he wanted to know how the hell this kid had gotten into one of his hideouts and _stolen_ from him without triggering at least ten alarms.  
It felt like a personal insult and taunt for the kid to wear it around just like that.

There was already a big crowd on the street, partially rich people who were distraught over the robbery partially others who had seen the news and were curious to see what was going to happen.

Police were there as well and Logan had to restrain himself from stabbing one that got to close.  
Fucking cops.

Patton typed something on his phone before putting it away. Whatever he had done has made him even more nervous. 

"Look!" someone called and pointed up at the roof of a two-story building.

There stood the boy from the bank and another small dark figure. So there were four new kids with masks. Just great.

Some policeman with a megaphone told them to surrender and get down and Logan rolled his eyes. These boys obviously had put a lot of work into whatever they were doing. As if they would just stand down like that.

One of the boys laughed but it sounded slightly hysterical.

The mask-thief pointed into the sky.

Logan looked up.

Thousands of bills rained down onto the street like confetti.

People shouted, trying to catch as much money as they could, others stood in shock.

These boys were good, Logan had to admit that. They were really good.

"That's my money!" someone yelled and tried to push someone else out of the way. Oh dear, this crowd was about to become a mob wasn't it?

"Let's get out of here," he told Patton and pulled him towards the nearest alleyway.

A man stumbled against Patton and Logan pulled him closer to him to keep him from getting hurt.

They broke out of the crowd into the alleyway and Logan froze.

Just a few meters in front of them were the two boys.

The mask-thief had scales painted on his mask and wore a black cape and a hat. The one eye that was uncovered widened at the sight of them.  
The others face was covered by a mask pulled over his nose and mouth and a hood, only his eyes were visible. 

For a moment the boys just stared at them then they turned and bolted.

"They're children," Patton sounded astounded. "Why are children doing stuff like this?"

"I don't know," Logan mumbled.

He knew those eyes. He knew those eyes well.  
Even if he wore a contact lens in one eye, Logan knew Virgil's eyes. Especially when he was scared.

Apparently they'd have more to talk about than just him asking out Patton later.

Patton took a hold of his hand and squeezed it.

"Can we go back now?" he asked.

"Of course, if you want to," Logan agreed, unsure what to do.

They walked through the back streets, hearing the mob escalate behind them. 

"Well, that didn't end well," Patton forced a smile when they arrived at his shop again. "Maybe we could try that again sometime?"

He was blushing again.

"Of course," Logan smiled back at him. "Maybe I could treat you to dinner sometime?"

"That sounds nice," Patton nodded. "See you next Tuesday."

"Er, actually I have an appointment next Tuesday, so I'm afraid I won't be able to come. I'll stop by some other time though," Logan smiled nervously.

"Oh, of course," Patton smiled back. "Goodbye, then."

He quickly leaned in and pressed a kiss against Logan's cheek before vanishing into the house.

Logan stared at the door for a moment and felt his face burn.


	15. Panic and Dessert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Panic attack

"Holy fuck, we did it!" Janus fell into the old couch they had stolen from the bulky waste and brought to their hideout years ago. "We're alive. We're not in jail."

Virgil felt sick.

"You alright?" Janus asked when he didn't respond.

"I need-" Virgil shook his head. "Gotta go."

"Shit, dude, are you about to have a panic attack?" Janus got up again.

"Ye- Maybe. I can handle it," he stumbled towards the exit. "Later."

He was glad now that he had taken off the costume as soon as they had gotten to safety.

He pressed his hands over his ears and hurried through the streets.

Papa had recognized him. He was sure of it. Of bloody course, they had run into him. Oh god, had they ruined the date? A date that was interrupted by a robbery was definitely ruined, right?

He stumbled into the mafia restaurant by Sithonpark that had become his main coping mechanism. Probably not too healthy but better than what he had used to do.

He headed straight for a booth by the back of the restaurant and curled up at the back of it, hiding in the cushions and his hoodie.

A waiter came up to the table. Virgil knew them but couldn't remember their name.

"Do you need the menu?" they asked.

Virgil shook his head. He knew the menu too. "Can I have a creme brülee?" he asked quietly. 

He felt like the walls were closing in on him.

Absentmindedly he started chewing on his fingers and tried to remember what came first. It was five things he could see, right?  
What could he see?

The table, the chair behind it, a lit candle, candle holder.

Wait, one more. His chipped nail polish.

Then four things.

Things he could feel, right?

What could he feel?

His hoodie, the cushion, jeans, his teeth.

Three things he could hear.

People talking, clinking of silver ware, the air vents.

Two things he could smell.

Tomato sauce and melted cheese.

One thing he could taste.

Blood.

He pulled his knuckle out of his mouth and frowned at the red teeth marks he had left on it. 

"Here you go," the waiter appeared again a moment later. Now Virgil could also recall their name. Tide frowned at the wound. "Do you want a bandaid for that?"

"Yeah, thanks," Virgil mumbled. He wondered if they even had bandaids here. He knew that they had needless for stitches and tourniquets and that stuff but regular bandaids? Maybe for the cooks if they cut themselves so no blood would get in the food. Even just a little blood could ruin some meals. Like most soups for example.

He didn't wait for Tide to come back to start breaking the caramel crust. A bit of blood dripped onto it but he didn't mind. It was still good and a good distraction. Not like the mashed potatoes Papa had once dropped a flask of blood in.

He hoped they wouldn't call Papa to pick him up again.

They did that sometimes because Papa could make him calm down faster than desserts or pasta and they couldn't charge him for the food. They could only take it off the debt they owed to Papa.

But Papa was probably mad over the ruined date and that he had raided the safehouse without asking and had robbed a bank without telling Papa about it and had showed the safehouse to Janus and-

A second plate of creme brülett was placed on the table in front of him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He wasn't done with the first one yet, at least not completely, but Tide had already put a second one out for him.

He knew the people here and they knew him.

Scratching the last bits of caramel off the first bowl he tried to find something to focus on.

Maybe if he paid attention for long enough he could figure out who was on shift today.

At this time there were usually three waiters around but later once it became time for dinner two more would come and usually substitutes came for the ones who had worked over noon so they could go home.

Virgil broke into his second bowl and scanned the room.

Luke was taking orders from an elderly couple but otherwise there were only other customers.

Virgil didn't want to look out of the window to the street where a few tables stood because for that he'd have to uncurl and he wasn't ready for that yet. He wasn't even sure if anyone was sitting outside. Was the weather good enough for that?

He could only say for sure that it hadn't been raining.

Tide came out of the kitchen again with three dangerously full glasses of wine but managed somehow to deliver them without spilling a single drop.  
When he had been little Virgil had always thought they were a fairy or at least a magician. The blue hair had also added to the impression, eventhough Uncle Remy had his dyed green and Uncle Emile's were often pastel coloured. Then again, Uncle Remy and Uncle Emile both had superpowers so maybe he shouldn't be too hard on his past self.

After a while Sally came out of the kitchen, balancing a few plates, her hair tied up in a perfect bun as always. 

She delivered the plates and on her way back set another bowl on Virgil's table.

"Thanks," he managed a bit louder than before.

She gave him a quick smile before returning to the table of a few college students who wanted to pay.

The door opened and Virgil peaked over the seat to see who it was.

Papa.

He ducked down again and dug into the creme brülett as if it could hide him.

"Hello, Professor," he heard Sally greet Papa. 

"Hello, Sally. Is my son here?" Papa asked.

So they hadn't called him. He had guessed.  
Virgil wasn't sure if that made it in any way better.

"Yes, he's over there," she answered, happy to help as always.

Papa's footsteps came closer and stopped in front of Virgil's table.

"There you are," Papa said.

Virgil glanced up from his empty bowl.

Papa smiled at him.

"What do you say, buddy. Wanna go home?" he asked.

Virgil hesitated.

"Are you mad?" he whispered.

Logan looked surprised, then sad. "No, I'm not mad, Virgil. We're going to have to talk about this but if you want to we can wait until you're ready."


	16. Applications and Cards

"I got a job in the bakery across the street!" Remus announced grinning widely. "Like this, our parents can't complain about it when I come here. If they try to I can just claim to be getting experience or some shit. It's not like they need to know my hours."

"That's a very good idea." Patton nodded. 

"I've been looking for a job too," Roman added. "Just haven't found one yet. We can also earn money to move out without having to rely on them once we're eighteen this way."

"You know that I'll also support you as best I can, boys!" Patton pulled both of them close for a quick hug.

"You seem very happy considering there are new villains in town and we still have no idea who they are," Roman said, having half expected Patton to be disappointed that they hadn't been at the scene quickly enough.

"I had a date," Patton grinned dopey. "Logan asked me out and we went to get a coffee together."

Roman instantly lit up. "Really? When? How did it go?"

"It was great! That was actually why I couldn't come to help you with those bank robbers. We went to that coffee shop in Clairs Street and actually went to Tanglens Avenue when we saw the news and saw the robbers. And... I may have kissed him at the end."

Roman squealed exitedly.

"Wait, you saw them?" Remus asked not interested in the romance.

"Well, yes. They can't be older than you. I'd rather say a bit younger actually," Patton said, once again feeling worry for those teens blossom in his stomach. "They were gone quickly though. I didn't get a good look and both of their faces were masked so I don't really know what they look like."

"Can we go back to where you _kissed_ Logan?" Roman interrupted. "How did he react? Did he kiss you back?"

Patton shook his head. "I kissed him on the cheek and then went inside before he got a chance to react."

"So you won't find out if he liked it until Tuesday," Remus realized. "Damn, I wish we could be there. Then maybe Roman can finally shut up about your romantic bullshit."

"He can't come on Tuesday either this week," Patton shook his head again. "Probably some work stuff. He didn't really say."

"So the rom-com continues," Remus fake gagged while Roman looked disappointed.

"If he comes while we're not around you'll have to tell me everything!" he demanded. 

Patton chuckled. "Alright, I will."

"Good. I'll hold you to that," Roman said pointedly.

The twins had to leave just half an hour later because their parents wanted to drag them to their grandparents' for dinner again.  
Remus seemed even less enthusiastic about that than romance so Patton guessed they weren't the best company.

As soon as it was dark enough he put on his Heartrate suit and snuck out. 

He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, helped an old lady bring her groceries up to her apartment (she gave him a bonbon and pat his cheek), watched the traffic and went to Tangles Avenue again.

There was no money in the street anymore. 

Of course not.

Over the past two days everything that hadn't been taken on Friday had either been picked up by passers or the authorities.

Patton went on to one of the old factories to see if some kind of gang had settled there. He made sure to check once in a while to get rid of them before they became too influential.  
He hadn't checked this one in a while because all he had found last time had been graffiti and some old needles he was sure had been filled with some kind of drug. 

Slipping in through a skylight he landed on a catwalk and once again got a smile off the cat ears on his hood. They had been a very good idea.

His smile fell when he noticed the boys down underneath him.

It turned into a frown when he recognized Janus.

"-As I told you!" Janus said and began laying out the cards he had been shuffling for a game of Solitaire.

"Yeah, alright, you did. Now you can shut up about it," the other boy said. He didn't seem interested in the cards but was drawing on one of the support pillars with a graffiti pen. "I get it."

His voice seemed misplaced on a downtown kid. More like it belonged to some eccentric British gentleman with a moustache and monocle. Except for the slight voice crack.

"You said yesterday that you'll be coming back to school soon," Janus changed the topic, obviously still smug about whatever it was he had told the other. "Do you know details yet?"

"Not really," the other began referencing something on his phone for his drawing. "They want to test me again to see which classes to put me in. Don't know when yet. I'm considering taking them trollied. Then at least the anxiety will shut up."

"I could tell you which standard my classes are, maybe we'll share some if you bullshit a bit."

"Maybe. Depends on what topics you're on. I don't want to do shit I already know. That's so fucking boring."

"I don't know how to tell you this but school _is_ boring," Janus said without looking up from his card game. "That is just how it is. You have no idea how much I envy you for getting homeschooled."

Patton contemplated if he should do something but they weren't doing anything illegal at least. Still, he decided to jump down.

He made both of them jump and the one Patton didn't know dropped his pen.

"You boys probably shouldn't be around here," he said, making his voice sound different to make sure Janus wouldn't recognize him. "This is a dangerous place. There are a lot of bad people around here."

For a moment both of them stared in shock.

Then Janus frowned at him. "Thanks, but we can take care of ourselves. Maybe go help people who need it."

Patton was taken aback by the harshness in his tone.

"Let's just get out of here, Jan," the other said, glaring at Patton through his bangs.

Janus picked up his cards his frown deepening further and followed his friend out of the rusty old back door.


	17. Science and Black-outs

Roman jumped over a street and landed on the roof of the university gym.

"What does Logic want from a university?" Remus asked.

"No idea," Patton said. "We should split up. You two take the front exit, I'll come in through the back. Try to avoid combat with him. If you find him before I do stall for time till I come, okay?"

"Aye, aye," Remus gave a mock salute.

"Sure thing!" Roman nodded. 

He and Remus made their way down to the ground and then towards the entrance while Patton went over the roof of the university building.

It was the science building.

Probably the one that made the most sense for Logic to rob but still. There had to be better ways to get what he wanted.

Somewhere shots rang out.

"This way!" Remus headed down a hallway and Roman followed just behind him. Remus was good at finding people even in places he didn't know. Roman trusted him on this.

They hurried past open doors and quickly abandoned classrooms and school labs.

Remus stopped at a crossroad and looked around for a moment before running left.

Roman nearly ran into him but managed to stop quickly enough before following him again.

He hoped that they'd find Logic soon. Running with the armour and gears was harder than running normally. He was starting to get slightly winded.

Remus stopped again, this time in front of one of the open doors.

It led to a big lecture hall.

Roman looked around at the rows. There were bullet holes in some of the seats but no people. The projector was destroyed and the desk wrecked.

Why would Logic vandalise a random classroom?

"Over there," Remus said under his breath. "In the side room."

They glanced at each other.

"Let's get him out here," Roman said. "We don't know how big that room is. Here we can move."

Remus nodded in agreement.

Then he took what was left of the teacher's desk and threw it over.

Roman flinched at the loud noise that echoed through the room.

For a few tense seconds, it was completely silent as they waited.

What if he wouldn't come out? What if he'd come out with a gun and shoot them before they could do anything?

Roman tightened his hands into fists to keep them from shaking.

The door to the side room opened. The room behind looked like a lab from the small part he could see.

The man that stepped out was not holding a gun. There was one hanging from his belt but he wasn't even touching it.

Logic looked at them calmly.

"I didn't expect Heartrate to send his sidekicks after me," he said.

"Don't think we can fuck you up, _Mr_ Logic?" Remus taunted.

The calm mask slipped and gave way to rage.

"That's _Professor_ Logic! I didn't spend years in school to get called Mister by some brat like you!" Logic hissed.

"What? You gonna spank me for it?" Remus cackled and stuck his tongue out.

Logic's eyes narrowed dangerously and his hand moved towards his gun.

If they made it out of this alive Roman would have to sit Remus down and have a serious conversation about what 'stalling for time' meant.

Logic pulled the gun and the twins dove behind the seat rows in opposite directions.

The shots cut through the air and tore through chair backs and Roman's heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest.

He kept moving with his head down and silently prayed for Remus to do the same so he wouldn't get shot.

He hoped Patton would come soon.

"Do you really think you can hide from me?" Logic called out. "I will find you sooner or later! Just make this easier on both of you and give up!"

A shiver ran down Roman's spine. Logic was right about that. The lecture hall only had so many places to hide and if they tried to get out they'd have to leave cover.  
And if he found them he'd kill them.  
There was no way the armour could safe them then.

"Nah, I'm in no mood to die," Remus screeched somewhere on the other side of the room.

What the fuck was he doing?

Roman peaked over the chair he was crouched behind and saw Logic's back as he stalked towards where Remus' voice had come from.  
He had to do something!  
He couldn't just sit by and watch-

"Besides we're faster than you, Boomer!" Roman taunted before he could think about it.

Logic turned immediately, cold eyes focusing on Roman in seconds and he forgot how to breathe.

Those eyes seemed to stare into his soul, dead, grey, void of any semblance of empathy. 

The eyes of a killer.

A predator and Roman was just a mouse, cornered and scared knowing full well that he was going to die.

He wasn't sure if he wanted Logic to just hurry up already and get it over with or slow down even more.

"Hey!" Remus yelled. "Get the fuck away from him!"

Something crashed into the bench next to Logic and Roman finally managed to look away from Logic who flinched away from the noise.

"Did you throw a fucking chair?" Roman blurted out flabbergasted. 

Remus cackled.

Sometimes Roman wondered if he was actually insane.

Logic seemed even more caught off guard, staring at the chair as if it would jump at him at any second.

Then he slowly turned towards Remus.

"That. Was. Stupid."

\---

Roman woke up outside.

He was leaned against The wall next to the entrance of the science building.  
His head was pounding and his vision blurred.

"What-?" his throat felt raw and he coughed.

"Roman! You're awake!" Patton entered his field of vision. "How are you feeling, kiddo?"

"Like shit," he managed. "What happened?"

Patton frowned even if it was barely noticeable behind his mask. 

"I'm not sure, to be honest. When I came you were both passed out and Professor Logic was gone. Let's get you two home, huh? Then I can make sure you're okay."

"O-okay," Roman agreed tiredly.


	18. Waiting and Ghosts

Patton kept his phone on the counter for once.

The twins were still upstairs, having stayed the night and even though they seemed to be fine now Patton couldn't help but worry.

It had been a long time since he'd wanted a Tuesday to just end but Logan wasn't coming today anyway.  
Still, he couldn't just close.

He had closed early yesterday to catch Logic at the university. And that hadn't worked out either.

Patton sighed.

He could already tell that this wouldn't be a good week.

Out of the window, he spotted a dark figure.

Some teenager in a black hoodie.

They lingered by the door and paced in front of the shop windows before stopping at the door again.  
Their hands were buried in their pockets.

Patton froze.

In all the years he had owned this shop he had never been robbed. He should have known that his luck would run out sooner or later.  
But not today!

Not when Roman and Remus were upstairs and probably in no condition to defend themselves.

The teen didn't come in but he didn't go away either.

Patton knew that many bigger businesses kept weapons under their counters but for him had had never been necessary.  
He could defend himself but a florist wasn't supposed to be able to fight the way he could and he couldn't risk his secret identity like that.

He wished the teen would just go away.

The fingers on the clock seemed to move slower than usual.

It felt like he should've closed hours ago while he still had two more hours to go.

Patton groaned and opened his phone.

He still had never asked for Logan's number, he realized. Maybe he should have done that instead of kissing him. Maybe then they'd be able to text and talk more.

Who knew if Logan would even come back? What if the kiss had pushed him away and he didn't even want to come back anymore?

Patton shook off the thought.

The teen still stood by the door. Patton guessed it was probably a guy.

Maybe he wouldn't come in if Patton stayed on his phone because like this Patton could call the cops quickly. Then again, calling the cops didn't mean that they would actually bother coming.

"Patton," Remus called from the back. "We're leaving or our sperm donor is going to be super pissed!"

"Could you not call him that?" Roman asked. "See you tomorrow, Padre!"

"See you," he answered and heard the door shut.

Somehow being alone made Patton feel even less safe.

Great.

A dishevelled man came in and bought a bouquet while rambling to Patton that he was about to meet his hopefully future in-laws and his boyfriend had told him that his mother was violently allergic to the flowers he had bought and that he couldn't just show up without any gift.  
Patton offered a few words of encouragement and the man smiled nervously when he left again.

Patton smiled after him but it dropped when he noticed that the teen was still there.

He just needed to hold out till closing time.

Thirty more minutes.

He could do this.

Slowly he began sweeping the floors glancing out once in a while.

Fifteen more minutes.

He filled up some of the vases and self-watering systems for the night.

The teen outside stared at the sign with his opening times as if trying to decipher it. Or maybe burn a hole into it with his eyes.  
Patton wasn't sure.

Five more minutes.

Almost done.

He'd only have to figure out how to get the door locked faster than the teen could get to him. But he could do that.

The bell over the door chimed as the boy came in.

Fiddlesticks.

Patton put his keys in his pocket and kept his hands close to his body as he watched the teen wander around the plants looking almost lost but definitely like he was making the conscious decision to stay away from the register.

Patton watched him for a few minutes until he found the courage to speak up.

"Can I help you with something?"

The teen looked up startled and then sunk into himself again.

"I- Don't know," he mumbled barely loud enough for Patton to understand.

"There has to be a reason you came here, isn't there?" Patton asked, more and more confused by the kid's behaviour.

"It's uhm... My Pa comes here regularly and he can't today and uh... It's her deathday so I thought I should maybe get her flowers or something, I don't- Sorry, it's probably too late now anyway. Fuck. I'm sorry, I should just go-"

"Wait!" Patton stopped him.

The teen looked like he was expecting to get scolded for something.

"Are you Logan's son?"

He blinked.

"I- Yes."

Patton took a small moment to get a proper look at the kid. He didn't look very similar to Logan. Small and nervous, messy hair and patches and tears on his jeans and jacket. Eyes just as dark but bigger than Logan's and outlined in pitch black.

"Did you mean your mother with 'she'? Patton questioned on.

The teen seemed to realize his mistake and looked away from him again.

"Yes."

Patton did his best to smile encuragingly.

"Well, I'm sure we can find some nice flowers for her! What kind would you like to bring her?"

"I don't really know," Logan's son let his gaze wander over the different pots. "I'm not sure what Papa usually gets for her..."

"He picks out flowers for their meaning," Patton told him. "To send little messages. Is there anything you'd like to say through flowers to her maybe? Like how you feel about her or something like that?"

"I mostly... feel quiet indifferent," he admitted. "It's not like I've ever really known her. I guess I... I'd like to know more about her? But I don't think that's a good message. I think about her from time to time and kinda wish Papa would talk about her more. So I could at least know some things. I don't know."

Patton pondered over his words.

"That's not easy to put into flowers. But probably no easier to put into words, huh?" he managed to get a minuscule smile from the boy before it was gone again. "I think I might have some ideas though. Viola tricolour stand for separation "he pointed at the flower," Sycamore for curiosity, Lunaria for honesty or fascination and... Candytuft for indifference! Oh, and Asphodel stands for 'My thoughts follow you beyond the grave'. That might fit too."

The boy studied the flowers Patton had pointed at.

"Is there any flower that stands for like sorrow or something?" he then asked.

"Yeah, multiple," Patton nodded and tried not to think about the fact that Logan had never once bought any of these flowers. Maybe their relationship really hadn't been too good. that would also explain what the boy had mentioned - that Logan didn't talk about her much. "I have purple Hyacinth or Yew over there."

"I... I like those," the boy pointed at the Hyacinth and the Candytuft.

"Alright," do you like any of the others?" Patton began picking out nice ones.

"Those uhm something tricolour? And the white ones are also quite nice."

"Viola tricolour and Asphodel, alright," Patton mumbled and started cutting the stems to the right size.

"But isn't the shop closed now?" the boy seemed nervous.

"Oh, don't worry about it, kiddo! I don't mind staying a little longer and I'd love to get to know you a little!"

"Because you want to become my stepdad?"

Patton almost dropped the scissors he was holding.

"I- Well, your father and I-"

"I know that your dating."

"We went on one date, I don't think that can be called dating," Patton tried to argue.

"He said you kissed him."

Patton felt his cheeks flush. "He told you about that?"

"...I asked."

"You asked him about me?" Patton looked up curiously.

"Well, yeah. Afterall I told him to ask you out..." the boy seemed to shrink into himself and become quieter more and more with every word.

Patton chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood. "I'm glad then! I was worried you wouldn't like me being around your dad."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, I'd understand if you wouldn't want some stranger around and invade your family."

The boy shrugged.

"Papa sounds quite happy when he talks about you."

Patton just barely managed to suppress the urge to ask what kind of things Logan said about him.

"So, what's your name, kiddo?" he asked instead.

"Virgil."

"That's a very nice name."

"Thanks, my Papa picked it out for me."

Patton burst out in giggles. He noticed Virgil trying to suppress a proud smile.

"Do you like the bouquet like this?" he asked and held it up.

Virgil studied it for a moment before he nodded. "It looks quite nice. How much is it?"

"On the house, kiddo."

Virgil frowned and opened his mouth to protest but Patton didn't let him.

"Don't worry about it, really! I'd just like to talk to you a little more if you don't mind."

"Well, I was going to bring them to her grave now," Virgil hesitantly took the flowers, "if you want to you can come along or something?"

"Isn't that something you want to do alone?" Patton asked.

Virgil shrugged. "I don't really care. You don't have to of course-!"

"If you don't mind then I think I just might. It's too late for you to just be walking around on your own. I wouldn't want anything to happen tp you, kiddo."

Virgil glanced over his shoulder to the darkening street. "Yeah, okay."

Patton locked the door behind them and they slowly walked towards the graveyard by the abandoned playground. 

"You don't remember your mother, do you?" Patton asked after a little while.

Virgil shook his head. "I was too young back then. Not even a year old."

"I see. I'm sorry," Patton said.

"It's alright. It's just how it is."

They lapsed into silence again. 

Patton tried to think of something to say. What did he talk about with the twins when they weren't talking about hero stuff?

"Where do you go to school?" he settled for.

"I don't... Well, at least not right now. Papa homeschools me. I only go to school sometimes if he has too many classes at the university or he doesn't know enough about something to teach me."

"Oh, that sounds kinda cool. I didn't like school much when I was your age."

"From what I know few people do. My mate tells me about it sometimes and I didn't like it either when I went."

Again silence.

The twins sometimes talked about their parents and fights with them but Patton could hardly ask Virgil about his parents. He knew more about them - at least his father - than the boy next to him.  
Maybe he could ask about that friend Virgil had mentioned?

"Are you going to go on another date with Papa?" Virgil beat him to asking the next question.

"If I wants to," Patton shrugged. "I would love to do something like that again. Maybe without the bank robbery but it was still very nice. And we'll always be able to remember our first date as the day those new villains showed up."

"Vigilantes."

"What?"

"I uhm... I think they're more vigilantes than villains," Virgil looked away from him.

Patton took a moment to get back on track. "If you say so," he shrugged. 

"You saw them, didn't you?" Virgil asked and his voice shook slightly.

Patton reached out emotionally and felt a tinge of sympathy. The poor kid was brimming with anxiety and worry.  
He tried to wrap him up in calm as a way to soothe him a little.

"Yes, we did but just for a moment. It was a little scary at first but they didn't do anything to us. I don't think they were any older than maybe seventeen. Or less," Patton sighed. "With almost every day I wish that I could help the kids from around here more."

He noticed two figures in an alleyway exchanging something, probably drugs. He wished it was an unusual sight.

"Logan probably keeps you away from that kind of stuff, huh?" Patton asked Virgil.

The boy's anxiety spiked and his knees began to shake.

"Uh, yeah, course," he stuttered out. It was probably an upsetting topic. Maybe his friends were involved in the wrong crowds. Logan seemed like the kind of parent who would do anything neseccary to keep his son on the right track.

They reached the graveyard and Virgil mumbled a small "Hello" as they went through the gate.

A somber mood overtook Patton as they passed rows upon rows of gravestones.

Virgil kept looking around as if searching for the right one.

"Don't you come here often?" Patton whispered. It felt inappropriate to speak loudly.

Virgil shook his head. "Not since the funera- There."

He headed towards an old oak tree and finally stopped by a grave near it.

The headstone was rather plain but flowers and vases decorated the grave itself. Virgil kneeled down and took an old bouquet that Patton recognised and replaced it with the one he had brought.

Patton read the inscription on the grave.

**_Here lies Caroline Marian Smith_ **

**_Beloved Daughter, Sister and Mother_ **

**_"Do Not Stand by My Grave and Weep, I Am Not There, I Do Not Sleep. " - Mary Elizabeth Frye_ **

A breeze made Patton shiver.

"How did she die?" he heard himself ask.

"Choked by some cop," Virgil whispered back. "Papa told me that her parents always blamed him though. That's why they don't send any cards."

"Why that?"

"Not sure. He says they never quite liked him. Didn't like when he knocked her up either. Or me, when I was born."

"I'm sorry," Patton said.

Virgil shrugged as if he didn't care but beside the crushing anxiety Patton could also feel sadness from him. To his surprise even a little bit of guilt. 

"Thanks for coming with me," Virgil said after a while. "I can go home alone from here. It's not far."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Still, thanks."

"Your welcome," Patton smiled at him. "I hope we'll meet again soon."

"Yeah, me too. Goodbye," with that Virgil left Patton standing by the grave and trotted towards the gate again. The dead flowers he had taken from the grave still in his hand he vanished down the street in the opposite direction of Patton's flowershop.

"Goodbye, Caroline," Patton told the headstone and decided to head home. It was late.


	19. Professors and Shortbread

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Bone talk

Roman woke up to someone violently shaking him.

"Wake up," Remus hissed. "Wake up, wake up, wake up, asshole!" 

"What is it?" Roman grumbled, trying to shake Remus' hand off. "Fuck, Remus, it's like three am! We have school tomorrow, you fucking dick."

"Roman, I just realized something! Stop hitting me, this is important!"

Roman groaned and finally sat up.

"What is so important that you have to wake me up at three am on a school night?"

"It's more like four am, but that's beside the point," Remus waved off. "I just realized that Professor Logic is really fucking stupid."

Roman blinked at him exasperatedly.

"Okay," he said after a moment. "Mind if I go back to sleep now?"

"No, this is important! When I called him Mr Logic he complained, saying that he didn't go to school for years to get called Mister. If that's true that would mean that he's actually a Professor!" Remus whisper yelled.

Roman glanced from one side to the other than back to Remus.

"Yeah?"

"There can't be that many Professors in this city right? Especially not that many young, male, tall ones!"

Finally, it dawned on Roman what Remus was saying.

"So... we can try to find out his civilian identity," he mumbled and a wide grin spread over Remus' face.

"Exactly!"

\---

Usually, Roman stuck around after rehearsal for a little while, chatted with the other members of the drama club or helped out with something while Remus goofed around with his friends in the club but on this Wednesday he and Remus grabbed their bags as soon as the bell rung and were the first ones out of the door.

They all but ran out all the way back home, almost getting hit by a taxi and earning a few looks and glares on the way.

The elevator ride was way too long in Roman's opinion. 

They dropped their bags in their rooms, Remus got the list he had created of all Professors whose addresses he could find in the phone book or on the internet and Roman put on his 'good kid' mask to ask Ma for a little money, pretending that it was just for him. She gave him a fifty-dollar bill.  
The money was for the subway and a quick lunch on the go and Roman was pretty sure that it was way more than they would need but better safe than sorry.  
He wasn't sure how much fast food would cost.

And just a few minutes after they had come home they were already on their way out again.

Most Professors lived downtown or at least near downtown so they first took a train downtown and went to a small Chinese place for lunch (which was a lot cheaper than Roman had expected). 

Remus pulled out a map and they began marking down the addresses to see which route would be the best.  
Roman doubted they could check out all of them in one day but they would do their best either way.

33 Professors was a lot for one city but Remus guessed it made sense since apparently here in downtown housing was cheap and the university was very close.

The first name on their list was Professor Jacobs.

They sauntered through the streets, using their map as a guide.

The house they ended up in front of was a trashy apartment building with at least five notes at the doorbell signs saying that the bells didn't work.

Roman pressed the Professors bell and turned to Remus.

"I'll do the talking, okay? Cause if we do find Logic I don't want you blurting out the actual we're here."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Sorry, I'm honest."

He didn't really mean it, well aware of how many times he had gotten on trouble for blurting out the truth without thinking.

The door buzzed and the pushed it open.

"Who's there?" an old-sounding voice called and as he looked up through the stairs Remus spotted a man that looked like one of those fivehundred-year-old turtles trying to look down.

"We have the pizza you ordered," Roman called back.

"I didn't order any pizza!"

"Are you sure- Oh, my mistake, sir! I misread the name! I'm terribly sorry, have a nice day!" Roman did his typical Prince Charming smile even though the man couldn't see - It was simply part of the performance - and pushed Remus back out of the door. As soon as it fell shut the smile fell again.

"If that was Logic I'm eating Ma's hats," Remus said.

Roman snorted and Remus' grin widened at the real smile on his brother's face. They were too rare.

"Okay, who's next on the list?" Roman said and Remus crossed Professor Jacobs off.

The next door they rang at was opened by a young woman named Professor Jain who looked like the living embodiment of the muddle-headed professor cliche. Roman asked which apartment someone they had seen on the bell sign an L. Williams lived in, claiming they had found their purse and awkwardly thanked her when she didn't know. Remus glanced at the door across from Prof Jain's that clearly said Williams and tried not to laugh out loud.

They visited Professor Davis and Professor Brown, Professor Price and Morgan and Professor Underweather.

Too old, too fat, too much boob, too brown, too short.

It was around seven pm now and they had had seven flukes which somehow was both too much (because why couldn't they just fucking find that asshole? Remus lit a cigarette in frustration) and too little (because how could they only have stopped by seven people so far? It was already getting too late, goddammit).

"Let's do one more and then go home," Roman yawned.

"So whose last for today?" Remus asked glancing at the list Roman was currently holding.

"Some Professor Youngblood. About as weird a name as Underweather. Good news: it's just a block away."

They walked down the street and Remus watched the smoke from his cig curl and fade into the evening sky. A few times he tried to make rings but he still couldn't figure out how to. Maybe that was just a cartoon thing though he could have sworn to have seen it in live-action movies too. Were there YouTube tutorials on this kind of stuff?

"Here it is," Roman said and Remus blinked back to reality. 

They stood in front of a simple townhouse. The most notable thing was the flower bouquet visible in one of the windows that looked like something Patton would make.

"Let's give it a shot," Remus said dropped his cig and extinguished it with his shoe. 

They walked up the three steps to the front door and Roman rung the doorbell. It was only one with two names. Youngblood and Youngblood-Smith.

Probably a marriage, Remus thought with distaste and prepared himself for some old dick to open up.

The door swung open and to Remus' surprise, it was a teenager probably even younger than them who leaned against the doorframe and glared at them. His eyeliner was sharper and neater than Remus would be able to make it in a thousand years and his lips were painted in a nice shade of dark purple. Maybe Remus should ask him what brand it was. It looked awesome.

"What do you want?" the boy asked with a scowl.

Remus waited for Roman to answer with some kind of excuse or something.

Roman remained silent.

The boy's glare became darker with every passing moment.

At this rate, he probably wouldn't tell Remus what lipstick he was using.

Annoyed Remus glanced over at Roman to see what the fuck was keeping him from saying anything.

The look on Roman's face almost made him gag.

Roman stared at the boy in front of them like he was the most incredible thing in the world. Like he had put the stars in the sky or was made from pure moonlight or some stupid shit like that.  
He stared at him as he stared into the air when he had some stupid crush or played some lovestruck idiot. He stared like he was going to start waxing poetry at any second now.

Remus doubted he had even heard the boy speak at all.

So he would have the situation into his own hands. 

"You don't happen to be Professor Youngblood, do you?" Remus asked.

The boy raised an eyebrow.

"Do I look like I'm a fucking Professor? I'm his son, dumbass."

"Is he home?"

"No, not at the moment. What do you want from him?"

The he/him pronouns were a good sign so far and Remus couldn't imagine this guy's dad to be a Doderer. The British accent, on the other hand, wasn't a good sign but Logic could probably cover his accent or something if he really wanted to.

Roman also seemed to finally be back on earth and not on cloud nine.

"We're students of his and we have a question about this homework he gave us," he lied before Remus could say anything.

"You are?" the boy raised his other eyebrow.

"Yes, we are. Do you happen to know if he'll be back soon?"

"Not sure," the boy shrugged. "If it's that important you can come in and wait though. I could also offer you some black tea."

"Really? Yeah, er that would be awe- I mean, that would be nice!" Roman agreed.

"What are your names?" the boy asked as he led them inside. He walked past a door that probably went down to a basement and a staircase up into a small living room. 

"I'm Roman," Roman said with a small bow - Jesus fucking Christ was he going fucking insane over this guy?

"And I'm Remus. I'm the good-looking twin, obviously."

The Professor's son chuckled, hiding his mouth behind his hand. "Obviously."

"And what's your name?" Roman sounded like he was asking for a precious gift rather than a fucking name.

"It's Virgil. Do you take milk and sugar in your tea?"

"Milk in tea?" Roman asked confused.

"Yeah, sure!" Remus agreed. Maybe the milk would flake as it did in juice.

Virgil came back with two cups and poured them, giving Roman a little bit of milk anyway, saying that it would be way too strong otherwise and he couldn't allow Roman to drink it pure but somehow Roman didn't complain when Virgil stood over him to pour it in. God, he was being fucking gross and sappy.

Virgil picked up his own cup again and offered them some weird cookies he called shortbread even though they didn't taste like bread at all.

Remus dumped two in his tea - which sadly hadn't flaked - and mushed them around with his spoon.

For a few minutes, it was quiet until Remus got bored with the steady clicking of the clock hanging on the wall behind him.

"So, do you like bones?" he blurted out the first question that came to mind.

Roman looked at him with barely concealed horror but Virgil's dark expression lightened up slightly to both of the twins' surprise.

"I do. It's fun to find them and clean them. I have a few in a cupboard in my room I've found in subways and other places over the years."

"Really?" Remus lit up excitedly. "I collect them too! My favourite is a near-complete snake skeleton with a rat skull stuck inside!"

"Wow! That sounds so cool!" Virgil didn't quite smile but he wasn't scowling anymore either. "I once found a dog jaw in a quite good. And I have this really nice possum skull."

"Ooh! Can I see them?" Remus asked bouncing slightly in his seat.

"Sure. Wait here, I'll go get them," Virgil stood up and left the room. Remus could hear him walk upstairs.

"He seems nice," he commented.

"He's beautiful," Roman sighed dreamily.

"Yuck."

"You get to rant about sexy people to me, I get to talk about crushes, that's the deal," Roman reminded him.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Fine, sure. But don't be too gross about it."

They heard Virgil come back downstairs.

He showed Remus the bones and gave him some tips when Remus asked how he had gotten them so clean. 

"Oh, jeez it's almost eight. We should probably get going," Roman said after a while. "Maybe we'll get to talk to the Professor some other time."

Virgil seemed to study his face for a few moments.

"Yeah, maybe," he finally said and accompanied them to the door.

"Can I have your number?" Remus asked holding out his phone. "Then I can send you some pics of my bones and stuff!"

"Sure," Virgil took it and typed something in. "Maybe we'll get the chance to talk again sometime."

The door closed behind them and Roman swirled around to face Remus.

"You got his number?!"

"Yeah, duh."

"That's not fair! Why did he give you his number and not me!"

"Well, I didn't drool over him," Remus shrugged. 

Roman pouted the entire way to the train station.


	20. Rent and Graffiti

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: semi-grafic description of a gory picture

Mum closed the door behind her staring at the ground in front of her.

"Our rent was paid," she said numbly.

"What?" Luan asked surprised.

Janus forced himself to act surprised as well.

"Yes, Mx Johnas said it was paid a few days ago. He was confused when I tried to ask him for a little more time to get the money together."

Janus managed not to smile proudly. He had faked Mum's handwriting for the letter, even if he hadn't actually signed it. Their landlord knew Mum's handwriting.  
He had learned to fake both handwritings and signatures in English five years ago.

It was a far more useful skill than most people thought.

While he and Luan prepared dinner Mum and Luan continued talking about the mysterious bill payer until a phone beeped in their bedroom and Mum left to check whose it was.

"I'm not sure why," Luan spoke quietly, clearly not meaning for Mum to hear him, "but I have the feeling you have something to do with this."

Janus froze for a split second.

"What makes you think that?" he asked. "Where would I even get that kind of money from? I don't even have a job."

Luan shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't know how you spend your free time. Maybe you picked it up after that heist? Maybe you found a different way to earn money. You're a clever kid. I wouldn't put it past you."

"I didn't do anything though," Janus lied. 

"Alright, I didn't mean to accuse you of anything."

"Babe?" Mum called from the bedroom. "Your boss is calling."

Luan dropped his head with a sigh before pushing off the counter to leave the room. 

Janus took over the pan and mum came back into the kitchen.

"How was your day, anyway?" she asked. "Did you meet up with any friends?"

For a moment he contemplated lying but he decided to be honest with her for once. She deserved to know at least _something_ about his life.

"No, I had detention."

"What? Why? What happened?"

"Mr Heller called this trans guy in my Latin class a girl and a fake boy so I called him out on it."

"And he gave you detention?"

Janus nodded not looking at her.

Mum put a hand on his shoulder.

"You know you were in the right anyway, don't you?" she asked, pride in her voice.

Janus smiled up at her. "Yeah, of course, I do."

Mum pulled him close in a one-armed embrace. "How did I end up with the best son in the world, huh? I'm sorry I've been so busy lately."

"It's fine," Janus said. "I'm old enough to take care of myself."

She was quiet for a moment. 

"That's what I'm afraid off," he caught her whispering before she went to set the table.

Luan came back in a little later saying that his boss had ordered him to come immediately and that they shouldn't wait for him to eat. He looked as done as possible with the world as he put his coat back on but Janus knew that his boss wouldn't ever get to see that glare.

Mum turned on the TV saying that maybe 'those thieves' had struck again and they could pick up a bit of cash if it was nearby.  
Janus chuckled knowing full well that this wouldn't be the case.

It had almost been a month since their bank robbery and he and Virgil had more plans already but it'd take time. They couldn't risk getting arrested, running into some supervillain, accidentally making the mafia their enemy or running intro Heartrate and his sidekicks.  
Neither of them were fighters after all.

At least as far as Janus was aware. At this point, he doubted anything about Virgil could surprise him anymore.

Mum switched through the channels until she finally found the news.

Some guy Janus didn't recognize had died at the age of 78 and Mum told him that he had been hot when she had been young.

"And- this just in - Professor Logic is on his second heist this month!"

That caught Janus' attention. Prof Logic wasn't the type to conduct heists often.

Security footage of the inside of the Central Bank showed Logic shoving a man towards a vault with a gun to his back. The man shook as he began opening the vault.  
The Professor looked up as if something had caught his attention before turning towards the camera. It looked like someone had brought it to his attention even though there was no one there with him.  
He aimed and the footage cut off.

After dinner, Janus helped Mum clean up the kitchen and she went to bed.

Janus let his pet snakes, Deklan and Desmund out of their cage and let them drape over him as he sat down on his bed and picked up his phone.

Four unread messages.

Two from the girl he was assigned to do a presentation with asking when and where they should meet up to work on it which he didn't even open so she wouldn't know he had read them - he didn't feel like texting her back - and two from Virgil he opened without hesitation.

The first was a badly lit picture of a graffiti of head, detached from the neck, with what looked like blood dripping down and something he couldn't really make out in the left eye. The second was a single question mark.

Janus didn't need more to understand what Virgil wanted to know.

_Looks cool_

_What's with the eye?_

He waited if Virgil would respond for a few minutes and left the messenger app to go to his browser - oh.

He had forgotten what he had looked u earlier.

The colours of the nonbinary pride flag illuminated his face - or was it their face?

"They," Janus whispered, trying to picture someone using the pronoun. "Their name is Janus."

They sat up and pet Desmund, letting their fingers slide over her smooth scales.

'They' sounded nice.

It made Janus smile.

But did that really mean that Janus was nonbinary?

'He' didn't exactly feel _bad_ after all. Just not as good as 'they'.

With a sigh Janus began to scroll through different posts made by nonbinary people, scanning most of them only briefly and dropping a like here and there on the ones that came so close to home it was almost weird and a few nice artworks.

_It's okay if it's just a phase._

The phrase was in the same font, in the same colour as everything around it but it made Janus freeze, thumb on the screen, ready to scroll on.

Instead, Janus read the post.

The message was simple. 

That is was fine to experiment with pronouns, labels and names, even if you came to the conclusion that you were cis the entire time. At the end was a smiley face and the words that had stopped Janus.

_It's okay if it's just a phase._

"They," Janus whispered again and clicked on the comment button.

_Thank you_

Then they switched back to their messenger app.

Virgil was online and had read the texts but not replied yet.  
Not that it mattered.

_Can you meet me at Winblae by the park in 15?_

Janus hesitated before sending, watching the 'Typing...' blink in and out of existence next to Virgil's contact name before finally tapping the small blue button.

The two arrows turned blue right away.

The 'Typing...' disappeared again.

_sure_

_emergency?_

Janus couldn't help a small smile. 

_no, just need to talk to you irl_

They brought their snakes back to their cages and noticed that their fingers were shaking slightly.

Virgil wouldn't mind, right? He wasn't transphobic. Or enbyphobic... right?

They took a deep breath, grabbed their jacket and climbed out of the window.

They would be fine.

It was just a coming out.

To their best friend.

It would be fine.

Virgil was already at the park when Janus got there.

He sat on a swing and stared into the cloudy sky.

Janus took a seat on the one next to him.

"So, what's up?" Virgil asked, looking at them. "Did something happen?"

Janus took a breath and let it out watching it turn into fog in the cold air.

"Kind of," they began. "Nothing bad though, don't worry. At least I don't think it's bad. I just... I've been thinking lately..."

"A dangerous past time," Virgil commented and it startled a chuckle out of them.

"I think... I think I might not be a boy," Janus finally managed to say.

Virgil was quiet for a moment.

"Are you... something else?" he then asked.

"I'm not sure but I think I might be nonbinary."

The statement hung in the air between them and Janus wished they could take it back and stuff it down, deep down so it'd never reach the outside world.

"Do you want me to call you by different pronouns then?" Virgil asked. 

"Maybe they/them?"

"Okay," Virgil nodded to himself. "A different name?"

Janus felt a weight fall of their chest.

"No, I think Janus is fine."

Virgil smiled at them.

"Okay," he said. 

Yeah, this was fine.

"So, where did you spray that head?" Janus asked. "Because the pic was shit."


	21. Whiskey and Photos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: alcohol, mention of murder, guilt, mention of human experiments, blood mention

Something was wrong.

Logan was sure of it.

Something about him wasn't the way it was supposed to be.

If he was honest that had always been the case but this was some new wrong.

He didn't like it.

Didn't trust it.

Heartrate's sidekicks shouldn't have dropped like that, the exact moment the lights went out as if someone had punched all the light switches at once.

He could do that to machines, electronics and the likes. Not people!

Those boys were definitely human. He had checked after they had passed out. So the reason was him.

He had made them pass out.

Had his powers changed?

How was that even possible?

Powers were developed and then they were supposed to stay that way.

In all his years of research he had never once even heard about powers changing.

It made him wonder if there were more ways his powers had changed. 

It made him wonder if this forced shut down would have lasting effects.

It made him wonder if he might accidentally make Virgil shut down.

And that really was the biggest problem. The fear of hurting Virgil. The feeling that he was nothing but a danger. It tasted sour and familiar on his tongue.

_"I'm going to give him up for adoption," Logan said staring down at the whiskey glass he was spinning between his fingers. "I have to."_

_"You don't have to do anything," Remy cut in. "Where the fuck is this coming from? You love the tiny gremlin!"_

_"I loved her too!" Logan snapped, slamming his glass down. His hands were shaking uncontrollably now. "I loved her and I just..."_

_He couldn't say it. Couldn't bring himself to put the true horror of what he had done into words._

_Remy knew anyway._

_"You're scared you'll kill him too," Remy said plainly. From him, talk about murder sounded like talking about the weather. Like a simple 'Looking good out today, doesn't it?'._

_Logan wondered how a person could be this cold. Sometimes Remy scared him.  
Right now he scared himself._

_"Well, I'm pretty sure I can speak for Emile when I say that we won't let that happen. You try to hurt him, we'll break your bones."_

_The threat was delivered so casually yet it still send shivers down Logan's spine._

_"Don't give him away, Logan."_

_He took a sip of his drink._

_"The kid's all you've got left now. Trust me on this one."_

Remy and Emile couldn't do anything if he shut them down. He should have known he'd lose everything one day.  
People like him didn't get to be happy.  
Didn't deserve it.

When had he stopped wanting to throw up when he killed a subject during tests?

Why had he ever thought he could raise a child?

Logan took a shot of liquor and cringed. It was that weird stuff he had tried once and decided to never drink again. It tasted even worse than he remembered but the alcohol burned his throat the way he wanted it to.

He had to get his shit together.

One more raid then he'd be able to stay hidden from the public for at least a year.

Part of him wished he hadn't asked Virgil for help on this one.

But he needed someone as agile and small as him. There was no way he'd find someone else in time.

With a sigh he stood up and put on his jacket.

He only had to stay in control of his emotions. That was all.

After tonight he could begin to figure out what had happened to his powers.

Virgil met him on the rooftop near the lab they'd be raiding.

"What's wrong?" were the first words out of his mouth.

"Nothing," Logan lied. "Just... stressed."

Virgil nodded and did something that made strong metal hooks shot out from his underarm armour about an inch from his closed fist. He made the turn so that the curved hook faced out and a flat one in.

"Interesting mechanism," Logan noted.

"They're good for climbing," Virgil grinned. "Came up with it myself."

Pride dared to flutter its waxy wings in his chest and Logan forced it down. It had brought him enough misery already with every time he let it fly, thinking he could stop it from going too high.

"Let's go then," he said instead.

Logan disabled the security doors and set the cameras on loop with his ability and they snuck into the building.

A security guard rounded the corner and tried to grab his walkie-talkie but Logan made it shut off too. One of the lamps burned out with a bang.  
That hadn't been his intention. That wasn't good.

Why was his control slipping?

Was the security footage even looped properly?

The security guard pulled his gun and pointed at Logan before he froze and looked around confused.

"Where's the kid?" he demanded.

Logan glanced to his left. 

Virgil was gone.

Up, his intuition told him but he forced himself not to look.

"How would I know?," he shrugged calmly. He had to stay calm.

A hook swung from the ceiling and hit the man at the temple, hard enough for blood to splash against the metal and the man to drop just like the sidekicks had.

Logan swallowed hard.

Calm. 

He had to stay calm.

Virgil landed next to the guards unconscious body. 

"Should we hide him?" he asked.

Logan took the guards gun and shook his head.

"We should hurry. Best case we're gone before anyone finds him."

"Okay."

Logan led the way into the underground lab he had worked at what felt like a lifetime ago. Weird how people called him a monster but didn't see the human experiments they conducted around here under orders of the government.

He was a monster, he wouldn't deny that but he was far from the worst one.

At least he didn't pretend to be anything better than he was.

"I'll get the stuff I need up here. The shaft I told you about is behind that door. I disabled the alarms so you just have to make sure you don't fall down," Logan told Virgil. "Do you remember the code?"

"1342-3369," Virgil nodded.

"I can't guarantee that the cameras down there are off so you'll have to be careful."

He ignored the questioning look Virgil shot him and made his way to the main office.

Behind him he heard the door to the elevator shaft open and something get dragged into the opening.

The office was locked.

Logan kneeled down, pulled his lockpick and got to work.

At this time no one should come down here anymore but he still listened carefully for footsteps.  
Better safe than sorry. The most important rule of any robbery.

The lock clicked open and Logan slipped into the room.

He knew exactly how the files were stored.

He had come up with the system after all.

It took him less than two minutes to find all the files he needed, he quickly flipped through them and put everything else back in its place. He didn't want Laberts to know immediately that he had taken anything.

He went over to the elevator shaft.

Virgil was no where in site. He probably needed a little longer to get the safe open and get everything Logan needed.

He looked around the room and sauntered over to his old desk.

The chair had been replaced. It looked like it had been packed in a plastic bag. He didn't bother sitting down.

There was a picure and he picked it up.

A family of two woman, a toddler and a baby smiled at him.

The frame had been drawn on, probably by the toddler, with shaky hearts, loopy flowers and inept letters spelling out 'Love yuo Momma'.

Logan set it down again and ignored the feeling welling up in his throat. A family picture he had hidden away and done his best to forget came to mind and he pushed it away again.

He heard metal clanck by the elevator and looked up.

"Can you give me a hand here?" Virgil called.

Logan hurried over to him and took the pack Virgil held up for him before taking Virgil's hand and helping him up.

VIrgil let out a breath of air.

"That was a lot of blood," he muttered.

"Are you alright?" Logan asked. He could smell the blood on Virgil.

"I'm fine. Don't think those fellas down there are though."

Logan still gave him a once over to make sure.

"Can we get sushi tonight?" Virgil asked. "I'm hungry."

"Okay," Logan nodded slowly. "Let's get this stuff somewhere safe first."

He just had to stay calm until he was alone. He just had to make sure he didn't hurt Virgil.


	22. Jump and Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: yelling, accidental misgendering, fighting, nearly falling to death, impulsive/recless decision making, concussion mention, blood mention (i might’ve forgotten smth)

Patton stopped and froze.

Roman and Remus landed next to him on the rooftop.

"What's up?" Remus asked.

"Look. Over there," Patton pointed. On a rooftop a little down the street stood two figures. One dressed in a black cape and hat, the other seemingly trying to vanish in their hoodie.

"Those new villains!" Roman exclaimed. 

"Vigilantes," Patton corrected.

"What?" Remus asked.

"Somebody told me they're probably vigilantes not villains."

"Okay, but why are they fighting?" Remus asked.

He was right.

The one with the snake mask seemed to be yelling at the other one who as rumour had it had worked together with Professor Logic on his latest raid. 

"Let's get closer and find out," Roman suggested, already jumping towards them.

Patton followed.

He wanted to speak to them. Maybe he'd be able to find out why they did what they did. What had driven them to this kind of life. How he could help them.

He had faith they could do better in life than this.

They stopped just a rooftop away.

"I mean-!" the kid with the snake mask gestured wildly. "Professor Logic?! Fucking Professor Logic?!"

The other ducked deeper into their hood.

"'m sorry."

They were fighting about the raid? So the snakekid at least was aware just how bad people like Logic and getting involved with them was.  
Patton tried to read the other's emotions.

Guilt and shame.

He let out a relieved breath. So this one knew it had been wrong too.

He felt just a little deeper and frowned.

He felt guilty for making his friend upset and going behind their back. And ashamed over being found out.

Right feelings, wrong source.

"Not to mention-" the snakekid stopped abruptly. "Fuck."

They were staring right at Patton frozen in their gesture.

The other turned and froze as well.

"Bollocks." 

Patton leapt over the alleyway and landed on their roof.

"Hello," he greeted.

The vigilantes glanced at each other, turned and ran.

"Wait!" Patton shouted and went to follow them.

Roman dashed past him.

"We just want to talk!" Patton added. "Please wait!"

They didn't wait, just sped up in their pace.

"I forgive you for now!" snakekid yelled at their partner.

" Thanks!" the other yelled back.

Thunder rolled and Patton cringed internally. He hoped the kids would be smart enough to take the chase down to the streets.

The one that had helped Logic grabbed snakekid's arm and jumped down.

That wasn't what he'd meant!

He stopped at the edge and looked down.

Logic's helper was hanging on a metal pipe leading from one house to the next by a heavy-looking iron hook, snakekid hanging onto him for dear live about thirty metres over the ground.

"I take it back, I hate you," snakekid hissed. "You're the worst friend I've ever had."

"You have other friends?" the other asked,

"Fuck you."

"We don't want to hurt you," Patton repeated. "We just want to talk. Just stay where you are, we'll help you."

"Fuck off!" both kids responded in unison.

"Balcony," the one with the hood said and began to swing towards one of the small balconies.

"Stop!" Patton shouted when his hook threatened to slip off the pipe. "You're going to fall!"

Snakekid jumped and crashed into the railing, barely managing to hold on and climbed over it. 

"I'm gonna do something stupid," Remus announced and jumped.

Roman screamed in alarm.

"What the-?!" hoodkiddo reached out, seemingly on instinct and his free hook caught on his shirt. He grunted when he caught the brunt of Remus' weight. "Are you fucking insane?!"

"Maybe," Remus grinned.

"Drop him," snakekid said.

"Don't fucking drop my brother!" Roman exclaimed, his voice an octave higher than usual.

"Your psycho brother just almost dislocated my fucking shoulder! Now get off me psycho!" hoodkiddo shouted. He sounded equally panicked as Roman.

Patton had to do something. He had to get control over this situation. He was the only adult here.

He sent out a wave of calm to keep the teens from panicking.

"Jump to the fucking balcony," hoodkiddo hissed at Remus. "You're heavy."

Remus hesitated.

"I'm not sure I can," he finally admitted.

"You jumped off a roof but you can't get to the fucking balcony? What the fuck kind of impulse control do you have?" snakekid exclaimed.

"None," Roman and Remus said in unison.

"Okay," snakekid let out a frustrated breath. "Just fucking jump here and I'll help you not fucking die, you absolute moron."

"Please stop swearing," Patton said in a small voice. 

The teens ignored him.

Remus crashed into the railing and snakekid barely managed to catch him.

"Fuck, you're heavy!" he breathed.

"I'm not that heavy," Remus protested. "You're just weak."

"Oh, excuse me for not having the opportunity to train all the time and get as strong as fucking Heartrate," he glanced up. "That idiom is awkward in this context."

Remus managed to climb over the railing and crashed onto the balcony.

Hoodkiddo swung himself and his hook swivelled around, letting go of the pipe before hooking onto the balcony with the other and pulling himself onto it.

Patton let out a relieved breath.

No more kids in mortal danger.

Remus got to his feet. He towered over both of the vigilantes easily.

"Can we please talk now?" Patton asked and tried to find a safe way to get down to them. 

Snakekid and hoodkiddo glanced at each other.

"No," snakekid then said and swung at Remus' head, hitting him against the temple.

At the same time, Hoodkiddo smashed the glass door into the building.

"Hey!" Roman exclaimed as Remus crumbled like a card house in the wind and snakekid and hoodkiddo bolted into the apartment. A woman shouted in surprise and Patton heard snakekid call out a quick "Sorry" towards her.

Roman found a way down to his brother first, just as Remus slowly sat up again, rubbing his head.

"That hurt," he complained.

"Is it bleeding?" Patton asked, landing next to them.

Remus pat at the area and pulled his hand back to look at it.

"Nope, no blood."

"Good, are you feeling dizzy?" Patton tried to recall what symptoms a concussion had. "Are your ears ringing? Is anything blurry?"

Remus shook his head. 

"Just hurts where he hit me."

"They," Patton corrected. 

"They," Remus repeated. "Shouldn't we've chased them?"

Patton shook his head. 

"Making sure you're alright is more important. We'll get another chance to talk to them. I'm sure."

"What's going on here?" the woman who had shouted earlier asked, startling Patton slightly. She looked scared but not overly. Born and raised in Woethough, Patton guessed.

"Don't worry, ma'am," Roman said."Sorry about your window."

"It's fine," she said. "I got a bunch of money from those kid's bank raid. More than enough to cover the repair... What are your names again?"

Roman opened his mouth and closed it again. He glanced at Remus and back to the woman.

"Haven't you decided on names?" she asked.

"No, I'm the Duke," Remus claimed. "Just cause he's too stupid to come up with a name doesn't mean I am."

"You don't get to call me stupid!" Roman complained. "You just jumped off a fucking roof!"

"Language, kiddo," Patton reminded him.

"Sorry."

"Are you their dad?" the woman asked.

"No," the twins said.

"Yes," Patton said at the same time.

"Alright," the woman looked confused now.

"Okay, he's our Dad," Roman amended. "And if he's the Duke I'm the Prince."

"Alright," the woman nodded. "Take care of your kids, Heartrate."

"Will do," Patton smiled at her. "Have a nice day."


	23. Cat ears and Scrapes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: panic, destruction, mild injury
> 
> This was going to be longer but it's already very long so I decided to split it up into two chapters.

Janus woke up to a loud crash

They sat up in alarm and looked around their room.

Nothing unusual.

Outside something else crashed.

Janus frowned.

Mafia, gang or supervillain? None were good options.

They got up and quickly pulled on a shirt and jeans. Just in case someone came into the house. Just in case they'd have to leave suddenly.

"Mum," they called as they stepped into the hallway. 

"Janus!" Mum came out of the living room. "Good, you're awake!"

She grabbed their shoulders and pulled them close. She was shaking slightly.

"Mum, what's going on? Is something wrong? What's happening out there?" Janus asked. Mum's fear was making their heart hammer harder in their chest.

"I don't know. There are these... things out there - I don't know what they are - they're destroying everything! You need to go, okay? Go to Patton's house. He'll keep you safe."

"What? What about you and Luan?" 

"We'll come later. We can't leave everything behind. Go now. Please!" Mum was terrified. Whatever she had seen out there it had to be bad. Really bad.

So Janus just nodded, mumbling an "Okay".

They grabbed their boots and their coat and slipped out through their bedroom window onto the fire escape.

A sound they couldn't describe caught their attention. 

Janus glanced towards the street and froze. 

On the road was something that looked like a burn hole or maybe a glitch in the world. It looked vaguely like a person, flickering and unreal.

The street lamp it passed burned out suddenly and with a loud bang. 

Another one followed it, dragging a street sign with it like a child might drag a stuffed animal.

There were dozens of them all over the streets.

Janus' phone vibrated in their pocket.

They pulled it out and nearly dropped it.

The screen was filled with text, overlapping, flickering and glitching violently.

Janus could barely make out a few words.

**...monster...**

**...can't stop...**

**...will kill every...**

They supressed a shiver and pocketed it quickly.

Uncle Pat. They just had to get to Uncle Pat's place.

Janus ran up the fire-escape onto the roof and took a running start to leap to the next one trying to ignore the glitch monsters down below.

They spotted a news reporter with a cameraman trying to get the camera to work to report what was going on to the rest of the city and the world.

So the glitch monsters were fucking up all electronics.

Janus ran on.

They nearly lost their footing on a steep rooftop the weightless feeling of falling making them feel sick before they managed to catch themselves, their knee scraping against the tiles and their jeans and the skin underneath tearing open.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

They managed to take a deep breath and focused on the next rooftop.

"Okay, I can do this," they whispered to themself.

The further they got the fewer glitch monsters were around. By the time they reached Armstrong Alley, there were none left.

Still, Janus stayed up on the rooftops until they finally reached the alleyway behind the flower shop.

The dozens of cats meowing up at them let some of the fear bleed out of their tense shoulders.

They were safe here.

They rang the two lower doorbells, one for Uncle Pat's apartment, one for the shop.  
Not because they expected him to be down there but rather out of habit.

The door opened just a few minutes later and Uncle Pat blinked at them in confusion clearly having just woken up.  
Janus felt a little bad for waking him like this.

"Janus, kiddo, come in!" Patton blocked off a few cats with his feet. "It's freezing out there!"

They only became aware of the cold now that they stepped into the warmer stairway. The adrenaline must've made them numb to it, they guessed.

"Why are you even outside at this time?" Uncle Pat asked leading them upstairs. "Did something happen?"

Janus let themself fall onto the couch.

Their hands were shaking.

"Something happened," they began trying to find the right words.

Uncle Pat sat down next to them and put an arm around their shoulder to help warm them up.

"I'm not sure how to... explain," Janus struggled.

"That's fine. Take your time, kiddo."

"I think it had something to do with a villain."

"Okay," Uncle Pat nodded encuragingly

"I- There were these... _things_ all over the streets around our block. They were ripping everything apart and made the electronics freak out and I have no idea what they were-"

"Shhhh... Breath, kiddo. That's it. Nice and slow," Uncle Pat began rubbing their arm soothingly.

"Mum send me here," Janus continued once they had calmed down somewhat. "She said that she and Luan would come too. They're just getting the most important things to safety."

"Okay," Uncle Pat nodded with a concerned frown. "Then all we can do for now is wait."

Janus frowned at the thought.

"Wait here, I'll just get you a bandaid and some disinfectant real quick."

They watched their uncle go and looked back down at their knee. The wound was about a centimetre wide and was bleeding sloppily.

They frowned at the hole. Those had been their favourite jeans.  
They could respect someone with ripped jeans but it wasn't really their thing. They preferred to look nice.

Uncle Pat came back and carefully disinfected it. It stung a little but Janus didn't say anything.  
The bandaid had some pattern on it.

"Thanks," they finally said.

"Oh, of course, kiddo," Uncle Pat smiled at them tiredly. "Do you need anything else right now? If not I think I'll try to sleep some more. You should try to get some sleep too. If you want to I can make you some lavender tea?"

"No, thanks," Janus shook their head. They didn't want to go to sleep. They wanted to wait for Mum and Luan. But they also knew that Uncle Pat wouldn't let them. So, their best option was to pretend to go to sleep and 'wake up' from the sound of the door closing when they came. "I think I'll manage."

"Okay, if you need anything you can either call me or get it yourself, okay? Don't hesitate to wake me up if you need me."

"Okay," they slowly got up and went towards the guest room. "Good night, Uncle Pat."

"Good night, Janus. Sleep well."

They closed the door behind themself and let themself fall face-first onto the bed with a sigh.

They pulled out their phone. It was back to normal now. 

Virgil had texted them.

_my uncle just enlisted me in his war against the target on mills str_

_he says the others are on thin fucking ice_

_says their crimes are numerous and unforgivable_

Janus contemplated whether to respond or not. Usually, when Virgil mentioned his 'family' it was best not to encourage him. But right now they needed some kind of distraction and something to keep them from accidentally falling asleep.

_What are you doing against them?_

For a while they didn't get any reply so they scrolled around Youtube and watched a video of a guy making a knife out of candy.

In the apartment a door fell shut and Janus perked up their heart rate picking up again. 

Were Mum and Luan there already?

They got up slowly and snuck out of the room. They didn't want to risk waking Uncle Pat if he'd fallen asleep by now.

The living room was empty.

"Mum?" Janus whispered into the darkness.

No answer.

"Mummy?" 

They felt like a child. 

Scared and helpless, praying for their Mum to hear them and come save them from the monsters hiding in the shadows.

Pressure began to build behind their eyes the longer the silence stretched on and they blinked it back.

They felt a breeze around their ankles, coming from Uncle Pat's room.

Slowly they padded towards the door and put their ear against it.

The sounds of the city muted just slightly by the wood.

Uncle Pat didn't like to sleep with the window open.

Carefully they opened the door.

The curtains were blowing in the wind like thin ghosts and the streetlamps outside bathed the empty room in yellow light.

Janus slipped inside and looked around.

Out of the window was a fire escape and they could hear footsteps over them.

They climbed out and watched somebody climb onto the roof.

Either that was Uncle Pat or someone was living in the flat above his after all.

Janus swallowed and climbed up on the railing. It was quicker than climbing the stairs.

The stopped at the top of the stairs and peeked over the small wall at the roof.

The man standing just a few metres away was dressed in blue body armour and grey.  
He fiddled with something, clicked a button and on his chest a heart lit up, blinking like a steady heartbeat and slowly changing its colour.

Heartrate.

His hood was down, showing messy blond locks.

Janus pressed a hand over their mouth. 

Uncle Pat put the mask over his eyes and pulled up the cat-ear hood.

Then he took a running start and leapt over to the next roof.

Heartrate.

Uncle Pat.

Heartrate and Uncle Pat. Were one person.

But-

Janus felt their knees give out and bang painfully against the iron grating of the stairs. 

Uncle Pat was Heartrate.

For a moment that felt like an eternity, they remained frozen then they jumped up and ran down the stairs almost slipping and falling twice before they reached the bedroom window and slipped through.

It couldn't be.

Their eyes must've been playing tricks on them. It had been dark after all and they were tired too. They probably had been imagining things.

If Uncle Pat was Heartrate surely there'd be evidence in his room, right?

They just had to look around and they wouldn't find anything and then they'd be able to go back to bed and tell everyone that they'd seen Heartrate tomorrow. Or had dreamt that they had seen him.

They opened a few random drawers.

Underwear (okay, they weren't digging through that), pullovers, socks and pants with some papers and Uncle Pat's passport and social security card hidden at the bottom.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

They looked around some more.

A pen was lying on the floor, half kicked under the bed. It was one of those promotional pens from Grimm Enterprises, who had sponsored the new basketball hoops at school.

They knelt down and grabbed it, before hesitating.

There was a visible edge under the bed.

They reached out and felt along it and managed to wedge their fingers into a tiny gap, pulling out a loose floorboard.

They patted around in it and felt a box.

Janus managed to pull it out and sat up to open it, taking their weight off their knees.

It was mostly empty.

Only two domino masks, a pair of gloves and a few spare batteries.

They picked up one of the masks. It had the familiar sharp edges and the silver lining. So definitely Heartrate's.  
They put it over their eyes.

It hadn't been made for their face shape, not sitting right over their nose and temple. No, it had been made for a rounder and bigger face.  
Uncle Pat's face.

They dropped the mask, as if it had burned them, slammed the box shut and shoved it back into its place, putting the floorboard back.  
Quickly they stood up and ran back to the guest room. 

Behind them the wind slammed the door shut just like it had earlier.

When Janus woke up the morning after, Mum and Luan were crammed on the couch fast asleep.

If they hid in the bathroom for a while so no one saw them cry then that was their business and no one else's. 

At least Luan wrote them an excuse so they wouldn't have to go to school for the day.


	24. Shots and Guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Gun, Blood and Injury, (kinda) Torture, Knives, Bloodlust, Smoking, Underage Drinking, Drinking and Driving, Gore, Skipping a Meal, Alcohol (even more of it), Guilt, Choking/Strangulation, Mention of Past Murder, Panic Attack, Self Harm (the self harm is in bold now)
> 
> This really isn't a nice chapter. If anyone needs it I can make a summary of it. Just leave a comment if that's the case. Stay safe.

Virgil listened to the sound of the rain pattering against the car and the radio woman report what had happened in Aunt Lian's block earlier this night.

Glitch monsters.

He dug around the glove compartment until he found Uncle Remy's cigarettes, hidden under the ammunition, lit one and took a drag. He watched the smoke curl and opened the window just by an inch to release it into the night.

Destroyed street lights.

He glanced at the Seven11 Remy had disappeared in about half an hour ago and lit his lighter again, watching the tiny flame dance in the stale light of the car lamp.

Messed up electronics.

A shadowy figure stood next to his window and Virgil glanced over at them. They were holding a knife. Good for them.

"Fuck off," Virgil mumbled tiredly and took another drag.

"Open the car door if you know what's good for you, kid," the guy demanded.

Virgil couldn't help but chuckle at that. He took his feet off the headboard and sat up slowly.

"If _I_ know what's good for myself? If _you_ know what's good for yourself you're going to fucking piss off now!"

"Kid-!" he thrust the knife at the window gap and Virgil kicked open the door hitting them square on the chest. They stumbled back and growled. "I'm going to fucking kill you, brat!"

Vigil stepped out of the car, taking the butterfly knife and the colt from the glove compartment with him.

"No, you're not," he stepped on his cigarette to put it out.

The robber was big. About twice as tall and five times as wide as Virgil, all muscles and heavy bones.

But at the sight of the gun, he froze. An uneasy smile took the place of the angry grimace.

They were in a lonely and dark parking lot. Nobody would look out of the window if they heard a gunshot or scream.

"Kid, don't do anything you're gonna regret. I'm part of the Trulow family. They're gonna hunt you down if you shoot me. No ones gonna find you're body! I bet yer mother's gonna get worried sick if her kid doesn't come home!"

Again Virgil laughed humourlessly. 

The rain was cold on his skin and his hair stuck to his face and neck but he couldn't care less.  
There was that feeling in his chest again that he knew Papa knew well, even if he never wanted to talk about it, the feeling he couldn't imagine living without even after being told a thousand times that it wasn't normal, that he wasn't supposed to talk about with people outside of the family. That intoxicating feeling - better than any liquor, pills or joint but no less dangerous.  
"It's what makes our kind what we are," Uncle Emile had once said.  
The man across from him knew it too. Virgil could tell.  
Otherwise, he wouldn't flinch back. Wouldn't be able to see it in Virgil's smile and his every movement like a bloody red threat.

The bloodlust felt like a promise in his lungs.

"Jokes on you," he slowly walked towards the man. "My mothers dead. And if you're really a Trulow, how come I've never seen you on the Christmas card? I'm sure I'd remember a face as ugly as yours."

"What-?" the man stumbled backwards.

"If you want to make it in this city you really ought to learn who to threaten and who's out of your league. You're just another sewer rat. I'm like a motherfucking prince to you."

The man fell back on his ass, crawling backwards.

"Run along now, rat. Wouldn't want mommy to worry, would we?"

The man scrambled to his feet and turned to run.

Virgil raised the gun, aimed and fired.

A scream cut through the air as the man crashed into the concrete.

He sobbed and whimpered, staring at the blood sprayed over the ground as if he couldn't believe it was his. As if the realisation that there was now a hole where his foot connected to his leg hadn't quite made its way into his thick head yet.

"Sorry," Virgil said as he got closer and knelt down next to him. "Couldn't resist. You better not tell my Pa about this."

He dug his hand into the wound until his fingers found the bullet, ignoring the pained screams.

"He hates when I use guns. Which I honestly don't get. I mean, he uses them all the time! Bloody double standards," he inspected the bloody bullet in his hand.

"Who- Who the fuck are you?" the man sobbed.

Virgil grinned. "Have you ever heard those rumours? About Professor Logic having a child?"

The man's eyes widened in terror.

Virgil heard the doors of the Seven11 slide open and stood up.

Remy raised an eyebrow as he got closer.

"Jesus, can't I leave you alone for five minutes?" he asked.

"That was half an hour. And he started it. He wanted to rob the car or something. I only used one bullet if that's what you're worried about," Virgil tossed the gun over to him and Remy caught it in his free hand. 

"Whatever. Just get in the car, hon. I got slushies and alcohol. We can stop at Crispy Creme if you want to."

"Sure," Virgil picked up the knife the would-be robber had dropped and jogged back to the car. "I hope they have warm doughnuts."

"They better. Oh, and there should be some baby wipes in the glove compartment. I'm not letting you eat with that guy's blood on your hands. Who knows what's been in that-? Wait, did you steal one of my cigs?"

"...No," Virgil claimed and was suddenly very interested in cleaning every crevice of his hand.

"Don't fucking lie to me. Just don't smoke in the car next time and ask before you take one. Emile doesn't like when the car smells," Remy handed him one of the slushies.

"Sorry," Virgil took a long sip until the pain of bain freeze bloomed behind his forehead before digging around in Remy's bag until he found the alcohol..

"Pour me some in too, would ya?"

"Sure," Virgil unscrewed the cap and poured some in his own then a bit more in Remy's cup. "More or is this good?"

Remy glanced over at him.

"Who the fuck do you think I am?"

"More it is."

"Exactly."

"I swear you're that "Two shots of vodka" vine," Virgil shook his head. 

Remy chuckled. "I take zero offence to that. Also, I gotta make sure you don't drink too much. You have school tomorrow."

"You're literally drinking and driving. And I'm going to school trollied tomorrow whether you like it or not."

"I think this is why your father hates me."

"He doesn't hate you. He can't. You and Uncle Emile are like his only friends."

"Doesn't he also have that flower boy?" Remy pulled into the Crispy Creme's parking lot. 

"That's his boyfriend," Virgil corrected and took another sip. Slowly he felt the alcohol kick in. 

"You mean your new father, then?" 

"I guess. Not officially yet but hopefully soon. He's nice. On the other hand, if he moves in I'll have to hide my skull collection."

Virgil followed Remy out of the car and into the shop.

The sugary sweet smell of warm doughnuts filled the air.

Remy bought a box, tipped a twenty and pulled Virgil back out with him.

"I'm not letting you drink any more," he decided. "You're not going to school drunk, kid."

"Yes, I am. Fuck off and give me a doughnut."

"Either you stop drinking or you don't get any doughnuts."

Virgil glared at him and took a doughnut.

"Fine."

\---

He still had a headache when he went to math class later.

He wasn't sure if it was just the hungover or also something else.

Not that it mattered. He had already learned the shit, the man, whose name he couldn't remember, was explaining incredibly badly at the blackboard.

Instead of paying attention he stared blankly out of the window.

Slowly the sleep deprivation was also starting to catch up with him, making his eyes heavy.

Janus had texted him that they wouldn't be coming to school for the day, which made it even more dull than usual.

He should have stayed drunk.

Then it at least would've been somewhat interesting.

Virgil woke up again to the sound of the school bell. He blinked a few times, trying to reorient himself and sighed.

At least math was over.

His next lesson was English, then Chemistry.

Or maybe he should just skip.

It wouldn't make a difference.

Maybe he could find a nice spot for the graffiti design he'd come up with based on the last body he'd found in the sewers.

The rats had eaten the fuckers stomach out and Virgil had set the eyebrows or rather what had been left of the eyebrows, on fire before taking a few pictures for reference.

He'd just have to come up with something for when Janus asked where he'd gotten the idea.

Virgil left the classroom and ducked into the nearest bathroom, locking the stall door behind himself before climbing out of the window.  
He wondered briefly how long it'd stay locked before someone noticed that it wasn't occupied at all.  
Probably at least until the toilets were cleaned. Whenever that'd be.

A sports teacher was preparing a lesson by the tracks but she was too focused on the task at hand to notice Virgil sneak to the fence and climb over it.  
He gave the school a middle finger over his shoulder as he walked away. For all he cared, every single person in there could go fuck themselves. Especially the principal.

Papa was working - at the university today - so Virgil went home to drop off his backpack and picked up his graffiti bag, headphones and the sketchbook he'd drawn the design in..

He strolled through the streets of downtown, avoided a few coppers and took an underground to take him wherever.  
As long as there were big empty walls there he didn't care.

He got out at the sixth stop.

Virgil didn't make a habit of spending time uptown.

Occasionally maybe, for family celebrations or when he and Janus planned heists but other than that he stayed in the part of town he had been raised in.

But that didn't mean that he didn't know the streets and alleyways, the shops, public buildings and skyscrapers made of glass, like towers out of a fairy tale.  
Papa was of the firm opinion that knowledge was power and he'd made sure that Virgil knew everything he needed about Woethough.

It didn't take him long to find a good wall.

The back of the main police station was just painfully boring.

Virgil pulled the half mask he used for vigilante business over his face, partly to avoid someone seeing his face and partly because of the fumes. Then he opened the sketch book and pulled two spray cans out of his bag, shaking them.

This'd be fun.

He worked far slower than usual, the anxiety over being spotted by the damned pigs making him pack up the cans he wasn't using immediately, so he'd be able to make a quick escape, and check for witnesses every five minutes.

By some miracle no one came by. For a while, he had the insistent feeling of being watched but couldn't find anyone.

He watched the flames, body and rats take shape with every colour he added until he got to the point where more would only make it worse.

Virgil took a few steps back and grinned. He signed it with his usual spider and took a photo to send Janus.  
They weren't online so he didn't bother waiting for a reply and packed up his stuff.

It was around noon now and he was getting hungry but ignored the feeling. He could eat later.

Instead he walked around some more, pickpocketed a businessman he recognized from TV - Mr Grimm or something like that - and bought a few new markers from the stolen money, before climbing onto the roof of a library to test them out.

At eight he took a train back to downtown.

It was already dark thanks to autumn finally taking over properly and most other teens were probably either suicidal, gang members or at home.

This was the beauty of the city.

As soon as the sun went down the few laws that were actually followed became meaningless.

Now the city belonged to the street rats and the lawless. They were all animals. From the racoons and possums, over the henchmen and thieves up to the mafia and his family. 

All animals.

Hungry for blood.

Greedy and destructive.

Virgil absolutely loved it.

He passed a few of Uncle Jeremy's men beating up a cop with a crowbar in an alleyway, greeting him as he passed, watched a woman smash a chair over the head some guy who had tried to grope her, dishevelled and angry, and grinned at the raven and racoon, which were fighting viciously over some small animal one of them had killed.

There was a light burning in the living room when he got home.  
Not the ceiling light - it was far too muted for that.

He unlocked the front door and shut it behind himself.  
It was warm in here.

"I'm home!" he called, taking off his shoes and jacket.

No reply.

"Papa?"

Still no reply.

Virgil frowned, waiting for a moment longer and went into the living room.

Papa was slumped on the couch, fingers tracing an empty glass. Next to it on the table was an empty bottle of whiskey, that Virgil knew had been more than half full just this morning.  
He'd opened it after all.

Slowly Papa looked up as if only noticing him standing in the doorway now.

"...V'gil," he slurred.

"How much did you drink?" Virgil asked with a frown. He couldn't remember ever having seen Papa drunk.

He blinked at the bottle and gestured vaguely with one hand. "J'st a little."

Virgil sighed.

"Well, you clearly had enough. You're fucking trollied. Let's get you to bed, shall we? You'll hate yourself for this tomorrow, you know?"

"Already do," Papa mumbled as Virgil put his arm over his shoulder to support him.

Papa leaned on him heavily and Virgil staggered under the weight slightly but managed to bring him to the stairs, where Papa could also hold onto the bannister, taking some of the weight of his shoulders.

"You look so much like your mother," Papa suddenly said, just as they reached the second floor and Virgil almost let him fall in surprise.

Papa didn't talk about _her_.

He never did.

"She had her hair like that for a while too," Papa continued. "Then she grew it out longer. She looked so beautiful. Like an angel."

Virgil kicked open the door to Papa's room.

He didn't say anything, almost forgetting how to breathe. Papa was actually talking about _her_.

Carefully Virgil let him slide onto the bed and ducked to take off his shoes.

"I didn't mean to kill her," Papa said, anguish in his voice as he began combing through Virgil's hair with one hand. "I really didn't. I just- I just wanted to scare her."

His hand slid over Virgil's cheek slowly and even though Papa was looking at him Virgil had the feeling that he wasn't seeing him. 

No.

Papa was seeing _her_.

"I didn't think it'd be that fragile," Papa's hand slid down further and settled on Virgil's neck. A jolt of panic shot through him. "I didn't think it'd break that easily."

Papa began to squeeze.

"I just grabbed her and pressed down."

His grip began to hurt and Virgil tried to gasp for breath, clawing at the hand on his throat.

"And then she was dead. Just like that."

Blackspots appeared in Virgil's vision and he swung out wildly.

His fist hit Papa on the temple and he collapsed onto the bed.

Virgil gasped and coughed, stumbling back towards the door and slammed it as soon as he was on the hallway.

He still couldn't breathe.

Why the fuck couldn't he breathe?!

His vision swam, from tears this time instead of lack of oxygen.

Was this how _she_ had felt?

In her last moments, getting choked by the man she had loved and trusted?

He didn't want this. This panic in his chest keeping him from breathing and making the world around him blur. At least not because of Papa. Not him. Never because of Papa. Papa was supposed to be safe. Papa protected him. Papa helped him calm down.

Papa had just tried to kill him.

Virgil sobbed.

Papa had tried to kill him the same way he'd killed _her_.

Virgil barely remembered to grab his jacket as he ran out, slamming the front door and running down the dark street.

He stopped at the North Bridge and collapsed against the railing.

The air was now so cold it almost burned in his lungs as he finally managed to take a breath. His throat hurt. He carefully wrapped his hand around it. It'd bruise.

_"You look so much like your mother."_

Virgil stumbled on through the streets. His reflection in a dark shop window caught his attention and made him stop.

His cheeks were streaked with black. His eyes were covered almost completely by messy black hair.

So _she_ had had shoulder-long hair at one point.

Virgil grabbed a hand full of hair and **pulled at it until a few strands ripped off.**

He stared down at them.

He didn't want Papa to see _her_ in his place.

The lights of another store, also reflecting in the shop window he was standing in front of caught his attention.

Did they have bleach there?

He crossed the street.

The shop was empty and Virgil was barely aware of the song playing over the speakers, so quiet that it was drowned out by his mind.

He grabbed two cartons.

Bleach and the first hair dye his hand touched. He didn't care. He had no idea what colour _her_ hair had been. He just didn't want black.

He didn't bother to wait for his change as he handed the cashier a twenty and fled the store.

Back at home, Virgil locked himself in the bathroom and ripped open the bleach carton, barely skimming the instructions.

The chemical smell filled the room as he spread it over his hair and when he was done he had to open a window to breathe.

He set a timer on his phone and busied himself with washing off his make up while he let it set.

**Once he was done with that he began pulling at the skin of his arms and digging his nails into the scars to keep his thoughts from spiralling again.**

The timer went off and he rinsed his hair out.

It was almost white now.

He ripped open the secong carton.

Purple.

For fucks sake.

He spread it over his hair, careful to get it everywhere. 

If he was going to look stupid he might as well make sure it wasn't splotchy.

He wasn't hungry anymore but he still went into the kitchen and warmed up some soup, forcing himself to eat, despite the gag reflex that kicked in a few times.

Then he washed his hair again.

He didn't bother looking at the result before he grabbed the razor and scissors.  
Once he was done he pulled on a turtle neck to hide the forming bruise, poured a glass of water and grabbed an aspirin.

For a few minutes he stood in front of Papa's door, frozen until he managed to go in, put both items on the nightstand and immediately flee again.

Then he once again grabbed his jacket and left, locking the door behind himself.

He wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. At least not if he stayed here.

\---

A knock on the window snapped Janus out of the half-asleep half-awake state they'd been in for hours.

Slowly they stood up, the floor cold against their bare feet, and frowned at the figure in the window.

They grabbed a glass water bottle as a weapon and cautiously opened it.

The figure slid inside.

"Virgil?" Janus frowned and set down the bottle. "The fuck are you doing here?!"

"You owe me," Virgil rasped. "Five nights. From that bet."

Janus blinked, their brain catching up slowly.

"The one we made for my parent's wedding?"

Virgil nodded.

He was upset. Even in the dark Janus could tell.

They closed the window, cutting off the cold draft, and Virgil took off his shoes.

For a moment they contemplated what to say.

They were sure that something had happened.

They just didn't know what.

"I won't ask," they finally said, "but if you want to talk... I'm here for you, okay?"

Virgil nodded.

"Thanks."

He didn't say anything else. His voice was hoarse.

Janus led him over to their bed and climbed in, letting him follow.

He'd cut his hair.

It also looked lighter than usual, though they couldn't be sure in the bad lighting.

Janus had almost fallen asleep again when they hear a muffled sob.

They looked over at Virgil again.

He was crying.

So something bad had happened.

For a moment they hesitated before they wrapped their arms around Virgil and pulled him against their chest.

"It'll be okay," they promised.

Virgil just latched onto them and buried his face in their shirt.


	25. Books and Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: stuff from the last chapter mentioned, implied past trauma and flashback, hostage situation, syringes, implied human experiments

Logan woke up to a splitting headache.

He blinked and the light falling past the curtains burned in his eyes.

He winced and it took him another few minutes to be able to open his eyes.

A glass of water stood on his bedside table, together with a small pill.  
He reached out slowly and drank almost the entire glass before he took the pill and drank the rest.

Virgil must've left it out for him-

Virgil.

Logan shot up almost falling over from a wave of dizziness.

He had strangled Virgil.

There was no body on the floor.

So he at least hadn't killed him.

He had strangled his son.

Fuck.

Logan ran out into the hallway and turned around himself once before rushing to Virgil's room.

"Virgil?!" his own voice made his headache spike.

The room was empty. The bed as unmade as ever, the skulls neatly on their shelves, drawings and posters on the walls.

Logan nearly fell down the stairs and burst into the empty kitchen, went on into the living room and ran back up the stairs.

"Virgl? Are you here?"

He ripped open the bathroom door and stopped.

The sink was covered in tiny bits of dark purple hair. A carton was visible in the trash can.

Logan grabbed it and pulled it out. 

Purple hairdye.

Had Virgil dyed his hair?

But where was he now?

There was no blood anywhere so at least Virgil hadn't cut again.

But he was still gone.

Logan realised a few minutes later that his shoes were gone and dialled Emile's number.  
Maybe Virgil had gone to Emile and Remy. They were like uncles to him after all.

\---

Janus woke up slowly.

They were cuddling someone and opened their eyes to figure out who the actual fuck was in their bed.

Oh, right.  
Virgil had come over last night.

He looked different.

His hair had been shoulder-length for years now but he'd shaved most of it, leaving him with an undercut and purple hair at the top of his head. There were no tear tracks left on his face and the bags under his eyes were as dark as ever, making Janus wonder how long he'd gone without sleep this time.  
They glanced at their alarm clock.

It'd ring in a minute.

They waited, watching the long thin second's finger move steadily until it reached the 12 again and the minute finger moved to quarter past.

A shrill noise cut through the room and Janus reached out over Virgil and turned it off.

"What-?" Virgil squinted and pat against their arm as if trying to find out what it was in his halfawake state.

"Morning," Janus greeted him. "Are you okay?"

Virgil stared at them for a moment before shrugging. After the way, he'd shown up Janus wasn't sure if they could expect much better.

"What day is it?" Virgil asked.

"Don't fucking know," Janus chuckled.

They grabbed their phone and unlocked it.

"We're lucky," they said. "It's Saturday. We don't have school today."

"Thank fucking god."

Janus contemplated for a moment before speaking up again.

"Can I ask what happened yesterday?" they finally asked. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Virgil looked away from them.

"Maybe... Maybe later but I don't think," he shook his head. "Not now."

"Okay," Janus nodded and got up, grabbing a shirt they had felt on the back of their desk chair. "Are you hungry? Mum bought some new cereal yesterday."

"A bit... Won't your parents ask why I'm suddenly here? Or who I am?"

Janus hesitated.

Right, neither Mum nor Luan had ever met Virgil in all the years they'd been friends. Even when they'd talked about him they had never actually used a name. They'd only ever called him 'a friend' or similar titles.  
Then again, both Mum and Luan tended to go to bed as early as possible to catch as much sleep as possible, since they had to get up early. Even while still looking for work Mum tended to be busy for the entire day and stood up with Luan.  
So, it wouldn't sound too weird if Janus just said that Virgil had come by after they had gone to bed. They'd just have to leave out the fact that it had been like three am and that Virgil had climbed in through the window and cried.

"I'll handle it," they said. "Don't worry. I'm an excellent liar."

The two of them left the small room and made their way through the apartment, Virgil's eyes scanning everything they passed as if he was looking for hidden clues to a puzzle only he knew about.  
Janus knew the feeling.  
It was how they constantly felt around Virgil.

The smell of coffee greeted them as they entered the kitchen.

"Morning," Luan mumbled and took a sip of his big 'Good Morning' mug. It had a jawning cartoon sheep under the phrase and had been his favourite ever since Mum had given it to him for Valentines Day six years ago.

He did a double-take and rubbed over his eyes as if to check he wasn't seeing things before staring at Virgil, looking vaguely confused.

"I could've sworn there was only one teenager in this household," he muttered into his coffee before calling towards the bedroom. "Babe? Did you have another child while I was at work?"

"What?" Mum called back her footsteps came closer and she stopped in the door to the living room. 

"This is my friend, Virgil," Janus introduced quickly. "He came over after you two went to bed last night."

"Just some stress at home," Virgil mumbled and shrugged awkwardly.

"Oh," Luan nodded. "That makes a lot more sense. I need more caffeine."

"Nice to meet you, Virgil," Mum took her own steaming mug from the counter. "Do either of you want any coffee?"

"Not today, thanks," Janus got out two bowls for cereal while Virgil just shook his head.

\---

Patton turned on the speakers he hadn't needed in months as soon as he got down into the shop.

The calming music filled the shop and he let himself just listen and breath for a few minutes.

He knew exactly what had triggered the night terror. He had almost expected it even.

He really had to start turning off the news as soon as they talked about any sort of science involving labs and experiments.

Patton gently caressed the petals of a full red rose. He'd take it slow today. Give himself the time he needed to fully believe that he was safe, that they couldn't and wouldn't hunt him down and drag him back there.

He was fine, he reminded himself, taking a sip of his rose tea.

About an hour after opening the bell over the door rung for the first time.

"Good morning- Logan!" he felt his heart leap at the sight of Logan. it had been almost a month and he'd missed him far more than he'd expected to.

"Hello, Patton," Logan smiled at him. He looked tired and a few strands of hair hung into his face. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good," Patton smiled back at him. "Is something wrong?"

He reached out with his powers and felt Logan's distress, panic and soul-crushing guilt. He could guess that something bad had happened but it was hard to tell where the emotions came from through the chaos they had created in Logan. 

"I- Uhm... I made a mistake," Logan said. "Have you seen Virgil by any chance? He won't answer his phone and no one I asked so far saw him."

"No, I haven't," Patton frowned. "What happened?"

"I did something... bad and he ran away last night. And I understand that he doesn't want to see me right now but I just have to make sure that he's alright."

"Okay," Patton said. "Well, as I said, I didn't see him but if I do I'll tell you. And I'll check if he's alright."

Logan gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Patton. It means a lot."

For a moment they stood in silence.

Patton wasn't sure what to say.

Part of him wanted to apologize for the kiss but he wasn't sure if he really should.

"I'm sorry I didn't contact you after our date," Logan said suddenly. "I didn't mean to ghost you like that."

"Oh, it's fine. But... could I maybe have your number?"

"Of course," Logan pat down his pockets. "I... forgot my phone at home."

Patton chuckled.

"Don't worry, I have a pen," he grabbed it from under the counter and took Logan's hand. He wrote down his mobile number and handed Logan the pen, offering his own hand.

Logan took it so gently as if he was afraid of breaking Patton. 

Slowly he wrote down his number and it tickled slightly. 

Then he put the pen down again.

"I have to go now but... I'd like to go out for coffee again. Or maybe something similar. It was nice." 

Patton nodded slowly. 

"Yeah, I'd like that. I hope you find Virgil. Like I said, if I see him I'll make sure he's okay and tell you."

"Thank you. And if you do and he doesn't want to see me... can you please tell him that I'm so, so sorry. He doesn't have to forgive me but I just want him to know that."

"Okay," Patton nodded. "Will do. I hope I'll see you soon."

Logan gave him one last tired smile before turning and leaving the shop again.

Patton watched him go and reached out with his powers again. 

Logan was still upset, worried and guilty but the panic had lessened ever so slightly. Considering the situation Patton counted that as a small win.  
He hoped he'd get a chance to talk to Virgil.

Part of him wanted to know what had happened, the other part wasn't sure if it was his place to know. He wasn't a part of their family and this clearly was a thing between the two of them but he also wanted to help. Not only because he cared about Logan but also because he was worried about Virgil, running around somewhere in these streets, probably just as upset as Logan - if not more - and maybe making bad decisions.

He smelled at his tea and enjoyed the warmth on his face for a moment.

For the following hours, nothing much happened, a few customers, a small chat with Ms Cho and nearly two pots of tea.

Patton closed the shop a little earlier than usual and moved up to his apartment to wrap himself up in his blanket and watch Cartoons.

He turned on the TV and lazily flicked through the channels. Some documentary, a Cartoon for toddlers - not really the kind he wanted to see, a reality show, a cooking show where Gordon Ramsay was yelling at some poor guy about carrots, the news -

Patton stopped as the sight on the monitor behind the moderator registered and turned up the volume.

"- according to the authorities there are seven hostages in the building. The Professor hasn't made any demands for their release so far. We'll keep you posted as soon as anything happens."

Patton's stomach dropped.

Seven hostages.

He couldn't stand by and do nothing. Logic was his opponent, it was his duty to fight him and free those poor people from his captivity. He downed the last bit of his tea and stood up to get dressed.

Damn Logic.

While he put on his armour, hoodie and boots one thought wouldn't leave him alone.

This wasn't Logic's style at all.

Hostage situations were something he expected from Psyche, maybe sometimes from Sleep or gangs, but not from Logic. Something was off with it.

He pushed the thought aside and climbed out of the window, only turning on the LEDs in the heart on his chest when he was a few buildings away from his apartment.

It took him fifteen minutes to reach the library Professor Logic had taken over.

Police were surrounding the building and one of them was trying to get Logic's attention.

Patton landed next to him and the man stopped, putting down the megaphone.

"I'll try to get in through the roof and get the hostages to safety," Patton told him. "Try to keep him distracted.

"Be careful," the policeman frowned.

"Will do."

He scaled the side of the building and looked around on the roof for an entrance.

He quickly found a small window which he managed to slip through and found himself in a dusty attic, full of old books. He sneezed and froze, listening for footsteps.

Silence.

Good.

That meant nobody had heard him.

Slowly Patton snuck towards the stairs and down into the highest floor of the library. and looked down through the balcony like opening down all the way.

The hostages were on the lowest floor, huddled together, but he couldn't see Logic anywhere. Maybe he was finally talking to the police now.

Patton snuck down the stairs, listening for anything suspicious all the while.

On the second floor, he hesitated again, just to make sure that Logic was nowhere near the hostages.

There were four college students, whispering among each other, a woman holding her baby close and rocking back and forth, a man nervously biting at his nails and a couple holding onto each other tightly.  
They glanced into different directions from time to time as if looking for the Professor.  
So they didn't know where he was either.

Patton stepped back from the railing.

"Hello, Heartrate," a smooth voice behind him made him freeze.

Slowly Patton turned around.

"Hello, Logic."

Professor Logic looked tired, his usually so bright eyes dull and lifeless.

"I'm glad you came here."

Patton blinked in surprise.

"And why is that? Do you _want_ to fight me?"

"No," Logic shook his head. "I don't. I want to ask you something."

"Really? Why I don't approve of you holding these poor people, maybe?" he hissed.

"Oh, them? They can go. I don't care for them. I just want to talk to you."

"Doesn't look like they can go."

"Then tell them," Logic shrugged. "I don't care."

Patton frowned. Logic's emotions seemed to indicate that he was speaking the truth.  
Slowly he turned around.

"Hey!" he called to get the people's attention. "You can leave! Everything will be alright! Just go outside!"

They seemed to hesitate for a moment before scrambling towards the doors. 

Patton watched them go until they were out of sight, just to be sure that they'd be alright. Even if Logic didn't seem to be lying, he couldn't be sure.

"So," Patton turned back around, "what do you want from me?"

Your powers. Are they your fault or someone else's'?"

"What?" Patton asked, taken aback.

The words "None of your business" were at the tip of his tongue. The anxiety from last night was still in his bones and just thinking about it made it tingle all over again.  
It was none of Logic's business.  
Patton's trauma wasn't his to know about. The scars on his arms were his own to count and see in the bathroom mirror.

"Are they your fault or someone else's'? If it makes you more comfortable, mine are most definitely my fault."

"What do you mean by that?" Patton's frown deepened.

Had Logic done the kind of experiments to himself that _they_ had done to him?

Patton felt his throat close up, memories he'd tried to bury years ago, flashing through his mind.

Logic frowned.

"Do you... You don't actually know where powers come from?" he asked slowly.

Oh, Patton knew too well where his powers were from.  
The syringes, tests and transfusions were haunting him.

Logic looked away for a moment.

"Trauma," he suddenly said. "Powers come from trauma. There is a gene few people have that triggers a trauma response, resulting in people developing powers."

Trauma?

It hadn't been the tests?

Or, it had. Just mot in the way Patton had thought for years.

"Mine was my fault thanks to my own bad decisions. Who's fault are your's?"

Patton clenched his teeth, trying to process the new information. If powers stemmed from trauma, that meant all of them were traumatised, right? Not just him but Logic, Sleep and Psyche too. Were they really all just traumatised people fighting each other?

"Someone else's," he said tonelessly.

"Mhm. I see. Can I ask how your powers developed? Did it happen quickly or fast?"

"Why are you asking me these questions? I'm not sure. I think they came slowly. One thing after the other until I just... had them."

"Thank you. I just wanted to know if there was a difference," Logic nodded to himself and turned to leave. "Goodbye."

"Wait! Why did you want to know this?!"

"If strange things happen around town or something, it's my fault. We'll see what kind of powers will be the result."


	26. Screams and Second Cookies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: background domestic abuse, toxic parents, allusions to past trauma

Roman slowly unlocked the door, Remus waiting just behind him and froze.

In the living room Ma was screaming. Dad interrupted her, yelling louder and something shattered loudly.

Roman flinched involuntarily at the noise.

Remus grabbed at his sleeve.

Carefully they slipped inside and towards the stairs, not daring to stay downstairs long enough to take off their shoes and jacket. They hadn't walked through any mud so it shouldn't be too obvious.

They avoided the creaky steps and made it upstairs, their footsteps muffled by the shouting.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch!" Dad screamed.

It was muffled but Roman still flinched.

Remus pulled him up the second set of stairs into the penthouse. 

Out on the roof, the screams finally were muffled enough that Roman could barely hear them anymore. Remus visibly relaxed as well and let out a breath he'd been holding.

They moved to the part of the roof that wasn't visible from the inside and Remus sat down on the cold roof tiles.

Roman knelt down next to him and wrapped his open jacket around himself. 

"How long do you think until they calm down?" he asked tonelessly.

"A week maybe."

"Until one of them storms out?"

"Don't know. Depends on how long they've been fighting so far. Maybe half an hour. Who do you think will storm out? Sperm donor or the birth giver?"

Roman made a face.

"That sounds gross. Please don't call them that ever again."

"What? It's true. They certainly don't deserve to be called our parents."

Roman didn't answer to that.  
He'd taken to calling Patton Dad instead his actual father but Remus' titles still seemed weird to him. He preferred just father and mother. To him, it seemed impersonal enough.

"I think father will storm out."

"Maybe for good," Remus suddenly said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know. Maybe they'll finally get a divorce. It'd be about time."

"Don't be silly. They can't get a divorce. It'd be bad for their public image. People wondering why and shit."

"I wish they would though."

"And who do you want to get custody?" Roman asked.

Remus shrugged.

"Patton," he finally answered. "Patton is the only good dad I know."

\---

Patton went back home and let himself fall onto the bed face first. 

Slowly he peeled off his gloves and pushed his left sleeve up.

Reddish, bumpy scars, flat white ones and a few that were only visible in good lighting when you knew they were there covered his skin and he slowly traced them.

If he hadn't gotten them in order to get abilities, then what had been the point of the experiments? What had they injected him? Why had they trapped him in that white white white lab with those knives and needles and syringes and pliers?  
What had been the point of it all?

With a sigh he forced himself to sit up and get changed into jeans and a cosy sweater, putting the Heartrate costume back under the loose floorboard under his bed.

He strolled into the kitchen and got out a pack of chocolate chip cookies.  
He really needed some comfort food right now.

Curling into his fluffy blanket he sat down on the couch and bit into the first one.

"Just a little me-time," he whispered and turned on the TV again. This time he made sure to skip the news and found a nice cartoon.

He didn't know it but it was one of those cartoons without much of an overarching plot so it didn't really matter.

It was about eight o'clock when the episode ended and to his disappointment, there wasn't another one after it. The cartoon had been good from what he'd seen. Biting into another cookie he began switching channels again looking for something else to watch.

His doorbell rung and he flinched involuntarily. 

Slowly he got up, keeping the blanket around his shoulders, and trotted out of his apartment and down the stairs to the backdoor.

He opened it just a little and peaked out.

"Virgil!" he opened the door all the way. "What are you doing here?"

"I- Can I stay here for the night?" Virgil asked not looking him in the eye.

"Wha- Of course, come in! Are you alright?" he ushered Virgil inside and upstairs to his apartment.

"'m fine. Just don't want to go home for tonight."

"Because of what Logan did?"

Only now Virgil actually turned to look at him. 

"What do you know about it?" his voice was suddenly harsh and Patton wasn't sure if he could actually see it or only feel it through his powers how the boy's defences went up.

"Logan was here this morning," Patton said gently. Virgil pulled back further instantly. "He asked me to make sure your alright if I saw you and that you weren't hurting yourself. He didn't tell me what happened."

Virgil relaxed again ever so slightly.

"He also asked me to tell you that he's sorry. And that he understands if you don't want to see him."

"He's right," Virgil mumbled. "I don't."

Patton took in the kid in front of him, the dark circles under his eyes, the wrinkles in his clothes and the defeat in his posture.

"If you want to," Patton spoke up again, "you can stay here for a while. I have a guest room and I can help you get your stuff for you from home. You can stay here for as long as you want to."

Virgil frowned slightly.

"You don't have to do that," he half protested but Patton could feel that he was considering it.

"I don't but I want to. I don't want you running around somewhere on your own. I want to keep you safe, kiddo, and if that's what you need I'll provide it."

"Thanks," Virgil looked at his shoes, shuffling slightly.

"No problem, kiddo. Come on, I'll show you around."

He gave Virgil a quick tour and set up a pot of water up to cook a few noodles for dinner since he was pretty sure that Virgil hadn't eaten yet.  
It gave him something to do with his hands and a reason to push away his own worries for now.

Afer they had eaten Patton lend Virgil a toothbrush, a sweater and some sweatpants for the night and wished him goodnight.

Patton wondered if he should shower tonight, he usually did after going out as Heartrate, but today he had only scaled a building and not fought anyone. Also, he didn't really want to see his body tonight.

In the end, he decided to shower with the lights off and got changed in the dark too.


	27. Pack and See

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: description of creepy behavior, Virgil bites himself to cope (again),

"Thanks," Virgil repeated as Patton parked the car.

"It's no problem, kiddo! Are you sure you don't want me to come along and help though?" he shot Virgil a smile.

He shook his head. "No thanks. I'll manage. He's not home and even if he comes while I'm there I can sneak past him."

Patton frowned a little at that. "I could help carry or something," he offered.

Virgil just shook his head and slipped out of the car.

He couldn't risk Patton seeing his skulls or any other incriminating things. It wasn't like he needed a lot of stuff either so it wouldn't be much of a problem. 

Slowly he unlocked the front door and went inside.

Papa wasn't at the university, he was pretty sure about that, but he wasn't home either.

Virgil had no idea where he was but it didn't matter all that much.

He went upstairs to his room and grabbed the duffle bag hidden under his bed. He stuffed his other two turtlenecks inside, grabbed his hoodie, jeans and some other stuff, his sketchbook and pens and remembered to grab his schoolbag as well before moving on to the bathroom. Patton had already given him a toothbrush and that stuff but after a day without make-up, he already felt like he had shown the world too much and should disappear from the face of the planet. He looked like shit, so he needed a way to look less shitty.  
His last stop was in the kitchen. Patton had food, more than enough of it, and even some tea but he was also the kind of person to get their daily caffeine dose from coffee, not from tea.  
Papa enjoyed coffee too. He wouldn't miss the black tea too much. The green tea Virgil grabbed was a different story but that was _his_ so it wasn't his problem.

When he came out about forty minutes later Patton was still waiting in the car to his surprise.

Remy would've fucked off to get Starbucks after fifteen and maybe remembered about him an hour later, Emile would've stayed for thirty and then gotten out of the car to 'stretch his legs', get distracted and wander off somewhere and his other aunts and uncles wouldn't have given him a ride in the first place but would've made their left-hand people do it, who'd usually just watch the road for other cars or any rivals. Unless maybe if the Godren told them to. But as far as Virgil remembered that had only happened once.

But Patton was just sitting there tapping at the wheel and bopping his head to some music he was listening to and when he noticed Virgil a smile spread over his face.

Weird.

Virgil dumped his bags in the back and slid into the passenger seat.

Some soft pop tune filled the car and Patton turned it down a bit.

"Did you get everything you need, kiddo?" he asked. "Did it go alright?"

"Yeah, I got my stuff. Pa wasn't home."

Patton nodded and turned the ignition. Virgil did his best not to tense.

"Kiddo, when Logan came to my shop yesterday, I told him I'd tell him when I saw you," Patton started and pulled out of the parking space. "If you don't want me to I won't text him but if you don't mind I'd like to just let him know that you're safe and that you're with me, okay?"

Virgil shook his head.

"You don't need to. I left him a note."

"Oh, okay then."

Patton parked again close to the flower shop and helped Virgil unpack his stuff.

"Do you have any plans for today?" he asked once they were done

"I was going to meet up with a mate of mine. Is that alright?"

"Of course. just be careful. If anything happens just call me, okay?"

"Okay, will do."

Virgil met Janus by the entrance of the main subway station. They weren't planning on going anywhere but it was a good spot to meet.  
From there they went on, just wandering through the streets, past shops and restaurants.

"So, you're staying with my uncle now?" Janus asked casually.

Virgil shrugged. 

"Yup, though I rather know him through my Pa."

Janus scrunched their nose.

"If your dad is dating my uncle, doesn't that technically make us like... cousins? Fuck, that's weird. Makes those people who think we're dating so much weirder."

"Wait- There're people who think we're dating?" 

Janus shrugged.

"Because we hug and stuff. And obviously that's illegal when you're friends," they rolled their eyes. "Mostly at school, so I'm not surprised you haven't heard it yet."

Virgil frowned at the thought. 

"Want to rob that Sephora?" Janus asked pointing at the shop across the streets. "They're dickheads anyway."

Virgil contemplated for a moment then shrugged.

He was about to answer when the middleaged woman passing them suddenly burst into song.

"Oh, please don't rob Sephora, oh, how I adore that store even though it's racist!~"

Virgil flinched away from her.

A couple joined her in her singing, all three of them smiling too widely and beginning to move around the two of them as if in a choreographed dance.

"What the actual fuck-!" Janus swirled around as more and more people joined in until the entire street was singing and dancing. There was music coming from somewhere. They just couldn't tell from where.

The singers split into two groups, one arguing that they should rob the store, the other arguing against it.

"What the fuck is happening?" Janus hissed.

"No idea," Virgil pressed closer to them, "but let's get the fuck out of here!"

"There's an opening!" they ducked between two people and ran for the nearest alleyway. 

The people kept looking at them, their eyes strangely empty and their smiles closer to grimaces than genuine emotion.

In a way, it reminded Virgil of the Other-Mother from Coraline. Smiling widely but scary. Nowhere close to nice.

They scaled the wall splitting the alleyway and the singing behind them stopped as abruptly as it had started.

"What the fuck?" Virgil breathed. "What the actual fuck?"

"Jesus fucking Christ," Janus leaned back against a wall. "So... How about we _don't_ rob Sephora?"

They chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, best not," Virgil found himself agreeing. He bit into his thumb in an attempt to ground himself.

They moved on quickly, both teens wanting to put as much distance between themselves and the Sephora as possible. 

They spent the next two hours without another incident, which Virgil was garteful for. Then Janus had to leave, because their mum had asked them for help preparing dinner and baking a cake for their stepdad's birthday.

Virgil wandered around on his own aimlessly for a little while, listening to music.

He passed an electic store and the TVs in the shop window showed a news report of what had happened earlier. Through the thin glass Virgil could faintly hear what the man being interwiewed was saying.

"... like someone was moving my body for me..."

He looked scared.

But what had cause it?

Virgil stared without paying attention for a while.

A sudden musical number in which the participants weren't in control and were barely aware of what was going on... That part had been obvious, looking back, from how mechanical the movements had been. Like puppets on an invincible string.

But what had caused this?

The TV screen suddenly went dark and Virgil found himself staring at his own reflection.

He clenched his jaw and quickly looked away.

Sometimes people tend to do that when they get an answer to a question they asked and they don't like it.


	28. Hot Chocolate and Guts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: after the second --- is a very bloody murder, before there are references to shitty parents, a failing marriage, and the city being a shitty place

"Just five more," Patton spoke up.

Roman pressed his lips together tightly. His sweat dripped down his face and to the concrete of the rooftop. 

He hated pushups.

His muscles were burning now and his breath was short.

"Four. You can do it. Three. Two. One."

Roman let himself drop to the floor as soon as he was done.

"Are you okay, kiddo?" he heard the concern seep into Patton's voice.

"I'm good," he heaved. "Just... just tired."

"Oh, dear. Do you want some water?"

"Please," Remus groaned. 

"I'll get you some real quick, hold on."

Roman heard Patton walk downstairs and slowly turned to lie on his back. 

The sky was blue but the air was cold. The clouds that had covered the sky the day before had moved on, now barely visible on the horizon.

With a groan, Roman managed to push himself up into a sitting position and leaned back against the wall meant to keep people from falling. He had long since learned that here in downtown they were rarer than speaking ravens. Ones high enough to actually be up to protocol even rarer.  
The weirdest part of which being the talking ravens who used their ability just to insult people or to give them wrong directions, then cawing as if they were laughing when they got lost.

"I'm back, kiddos!" Patton announced, carrying two water bottles. He handed one to Roman and knelt down next to Remus who was still lying on his face. "You alright, Remus?"

Remus lifted his head and craned it to look at him.

"Your roof tastes better than ours."

"That's good to know. Do you want the water now?" Patton offered it to him.

"Yeah, thanks." Remus pushed himself up and sat criss-cross.

Roman finally managed to unscrew his water and drank half of it in one go before gasping for air. 

Patton gave for them a few more moments to catch their breath before ushering them down the stairs to the apartment so they wouldn't catch colds.

Roman noticed a jacket hanging over one of the chairs as if someone had put it down and then forgotten all about it.  
It was far too small to be Patton's.  
On second glance he noticed a few patches on it, one of it with an anarchy symbol painted on.  
Okay, yeah, that definitely wasn't Patton's.

"Whose is that?" he asked, let himself fall on the couch and took another sip of his water.

"Oh, that's Virgil's."

Roman nearly chocked on his water. 

"You know Virgil?" Remus asked surprised.

"I- yeah. He's Logan's son. They had some kind of fight so he's staying with me for a while. How do you know him?"

"We met him a while back," Remus sat down next to Roman. "I've texted him a lot recently. We're friends I think."

"That's nice," Patton picked up the jacket and folded it carefully. "He's actually the reason we might not be able to train regularly for a while. I don't really want him to find out about the whole hero thing. Do you want some cookies?"

"Chocolate chip?" Roman asked.

"Sure. I also have some hot chocolate if you want. You can go shower real quick while I make it, okay?"

"Okay, thanks, dad."

Roman went to shower first.

Virgil's dad was Patton's boyfriend. So Professor Youngblood was Logan.  
Then they could cross him off the list of suspects too. From what he knew about Logan there was no way he was a supervillain. That was good. Now at least he could be sure that he wasn't crushing on a villain's son-

Roman let the warm water run over his body, soothing his aching muscles and warming his cold hands.

He finally shut the faucet and stepped out of the shower. His towel was the green one, Remus had taken the red. They switched after every wash.

Drying himself off Roman noticed a foundation lying by the sink. Also Virgil's.  
Patton didn't use any.

He slipped into a shirt that had given him a headache when he'd seen it in the store and bought in a heartbeat and jeans before leaving the bathroom, letting Remus in.

The smell of warm milk already filled the apartment and Roman wandered over to the kitchen.

"Hi, kiddo," Patton greeted him, not daring to take his eyes off the pot of milk. "Feeling better now?"

"Yeah, the shower was nice." 

Roman got out three plates and cups, and set them out on the dinner table. 

"Can we come over after six tomorrow?" he asked after a whole.

"You can come over anytime you want," Patton answered.

"Nah, tomorrow is Monday - therapist day."

"Oh, right," Patton nodded. "And it ends at six?" 

"Remus' does. Mine ends an hour earlier but we always go there together and whoever isn't talking to Doctor Picani is usually hanging out with his boyfriend, Remy. He's cool."

"I see. Just be careful on your way here. With how dark it already gets at six it might be dangerous. Don't take any shortcuts, okay?"

Okay, dad. We'll be careful," Roman smiled. Both at the fact that he wouldn't have to eat dinner at home - the tension between Ma and Dad was getting worse and worse with each day - and at the opportunity to see Virgil again.

\---

The twins left a few hours later and Patton began to wonder where Virgil was.

It was dark out now and with every minute that went by Patton felt more and more worried. He checked his phone again.

No new messages.

If he was eating dinner with his friend he would have at least texted Patton right?

 _Are you on your way back, kiddo?_

He hesitated a little before sending the text and put his phone down again.

He busied himself by getting out a skillet, cutting up a bit of garlic and roasting it.  
He hoped Virgil liked salmon.

His phone vibrated on the table.

_ill be there in twenty_

Patton frowned and glanced out into the darkness. The street lamp in front of his apartment had burned out again.

Virgil was a clever boy. He'd be fine, Patton told himself.

\---

Virgil struggled to pull out his phone and unlock it to read Patton's text.

_Are you on your way back, kiddo?_

"Ah, fuck," he glanced down at the person under him. He wasn't sure anymore whether they'd been male or female, he hadn't bothered to pay attention, and now it was a little hard to tell under the blood and wounds. He had remembered to make sure Janus was gone before killing and had completely forgotten that Patton would be waiting for him.

His gaze wandered over to the alleyway at the end of which he could see the river.

"Welp, I guess we'll have to cut this short," he told the person.

They whimpered past their broken jaw.

"You're _still_ alive?" Virgil raised an eyebrow. "Damn, you really don't want to give in."

He stood up and grabbed their legs to drag them towards the river.

"Too bad. I hear drowning's one of the worst ways to die," he grunted, struggling with their weight. Their left arm stayed where it'd been lying which took off a little weight but they were still very big.

It took him about ten minutes to drag them to the river banks and with another good shove they fell in.

"Dammit, now I just still have to clean up myself."

He pulled out his phone again and managed to type a reply. 

"Why does blood have to be this slippery," he mumbled and licked it off his fingertips. "Mhm. B positive."


	29. Crushing and Breaking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: implied/mentioned abuse, food mention, gross food combinations mentioned (the sandwich is something my sibling actually ate once. my dad and I were disgusted), fight and blood, mention of biting ear of and cutting ear off, passing out

Remus took two steps at a time up to Patton's apartment.

"I can't wait to see Virge again!" he grinned. "I missed him."

The apartment door stood open and Roman closed it behind them.

"We're here!" he called.

"Hi, kiddos!" Patton called from the kitchen.

Remus kicked off his shoes and strolled into the living room.

Virgil looked up from where he was setting the table.

"Sup," he gave a two finger salute.

"Holy fuck, you dyed your hair?" Remus blurted out. "Fuck, why didn't you tell me! It looks so cool!"

He heard Roman come in and even though he didn't bother too turn around Remus was sure that Roman was a gay mess. He probably wouldn't stop gushing about this for a week.

Virgil glanced away.

"Uh, thanks," he smiled nervously. "I had a break down."

"Oh. Mood."

The smile on Virgils face turned even more frantic.

"Heh, yeah," the look in his eyes screamed 'you have no idea' and Remus wondered what the breakdown had been about.

"I once tried to shave my head during a breakdown," he said instead of asking. "Roman stopped me though."

"Yeah, cause Ma would've killed you," Roman butted in.

Remus chuckled. Even if Roman was probably right.

"Hi, kiddos!" Patton came out of the kitchen, dispersing the weird tension that had settled over the room. He gave Remus and Roman tight hugs. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good," Roman answered.

"School was boring but Remy let me borrow some cigarrets," Remus said.

He noticed Virgil's eyes widen.

"Do you know Remy?" Remus blurted out. 

"Dunno, I know a Remy but..." Virgil trailed off.

"Our Remy is our therapist's boyfriend," Remus offered. "He's really cool."

"Dr Picani," Roman said.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Virgil muttered. 

"Language," Patton scolded but looked mostly confused at the exchange. "Do you know know that guy?"

A panicked look entered Virgil's eyes.

"I uhm- Yes. They're my uncles," he smiled nervously.

"Wait, really? Does everyone in downtown know eachother or something?" Remus gaped.

"I didn't know Logan had any siblings," Patton muttered but was ignored.

"No, we don't all know eachother," Virgil scoffed. "That's ridiculous."

Patton chuckled at that. 

"Well, how about we eat now, before the food gets cold, kiddos?" he suggested.

"Alright, what did you make?" Roman asked.

"I made us some lasanga," Patton moved back to the kitchen and brought out the lasanga wearing ovenmitts. "I hope you kiddos all like lasanga."

"I don't like the one our cook makes," Remus said, sitting down. "He uses bean curd. It's disgusting and not in the good way."

"Okay, first of all, you have a cook? And secong of all is there a good kind of disgusting?" Virgil, frowned in confusion. 

"Yes! Like milk in orange juice! Or a sandwich with peanut butter, cheese, chutney, sausage and coleslaw!"

"Don't ask," Roman said in a flat tone. "Just don't."

"Okay," Virgil nodded slowly and took a seat next to Roman.

An awkward silence settled over them.

"How was school today?" Patton asked into the room, not really addressing any of them.

Panic entered Virgil's eyes again and he stuffed his first fork into his mouth. Somehow he managed to not even make a noise but Remus could see tears in his eyes from the heat.

"We got a math test back," Roman said. "I got a D. Better than I expected to be honest. Can you sign it for me maybe? Mother will be pissed if she sees it."

"Of course, kiddo."

Remus didn't listen as Roman continued to talk about the fight between Kelly Brook and Chase Weatherall that had happened during lunch and had ended with blood dripping from Kelly's nose like a faucet and instead drifted off into his thoughts.

\---

"Fuck," Janus whispered. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."

It was foggy and the roofs were icy for the first time in the year. Their boots slipped on a few tiles and they barely managed to catch themselves before pummeling down to the street.

They hoped that the fog hid them, at least slightly.

It couldn't hide Heartrate though.

Janus risked a glance backwards and spotted the glowig heart just a few roofs behing them. A lighter figure was just a few metres behind them.

"The red one is fast," Virgil huffed out. 

The Prince, the media had started to call him a little while back, Janus recalled.

"Let's split up," they suggested. 

"And loose sight of eachother?" Virgil hissed. "I don't think so."

"Okay, yeah."

They jumped down to a balcony, a pot shattered next to Janus and they winced slightly, before jumping over to the next one, Virgil just behind them.

A sharp pain was starting to grow in their side.

Either they lost them soon or they were going to have to give up.

"Don't they have anything better to do than chase us around town?" Virgil sounded out of breath too.

Apperantly not, Janus wanted to say but they opted to save their breath.

They nearly felly down the fire ladder, slammed into a wall, unable to stop themselves on the slippery ground, and nearly gagged as the air was knocked out of them.

Janus stumbled and gasped, trying to get oxygen into their lungs.

They managed to take a breath and it was immediatly knocked out of them again.

"Sorry," the Prince stumbled back a few steps.

Janus flipped him off desperatly trying to regain control over their lungs.

They felt like they were about to throw up. If their vision could stop blurring and swaying, that would also be nice.

Where was Virgil? Had he gotten away?

Good for him. But it also made them slightly bitter.  
They kinda wanted to throw up on his shoes for that but they couldn't really do that if he had really gotten away.

Dammit.

"Dude, are you alright?" the Prince asked.

They flipped him off again.

"Don't call me 'Dude'," they finally managed to take a breath again.

"Er... Pal?"

"I'm not your fucking pal, sidekick."

They blincked and the blurryness finally faded too.

Heartrate landed on the ground just next to the Prince. The Duke was nowhere inside and neither was Virgil so maybe they were starting a book club together while they were gettin captured in this fucking alleyway.

Janus frowned at their own thought.

They probably had hit their head.

"Are you okay, kid?" Heartrate asked. 

Janus opened their mouth to sass him but stopped. They couldn't be mean to their uncle like they could with the sidekick brat.

"No," they said before they could stop themselves.

A strangled yell by the exit of the alleyway distracted them.

Janus turned to see the Duke boy carrying Virgil like a sack of flour. A yelling, struggling and kicking sack of flour, but still.

"Bitch, stop trying to bite me!" the Duke hissed.

"Let me go or I'll bite your ear off!" Virgil yelled, the Ts completely swallowed by his accent.

The Duke dropped him like he was playing football and just made a homerun. That was probably not what it was called but Janus couldn't bring themselves to care.  
They weren't a fucking jock.  
They were a queer theatre kid.  
And maybe hit their head too hard.  
It wasn't their job to know about sport shit.

"Bitch, I wanna cut that off myself like Van Gogh!"

Virgil scrambled onto all fours and hissed at the Duke like a feral racoon, before managing to get to his feet and bringing a good two metres between himself and the Duke.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you," Heartrate spoke up. "I want to help you. There has to be a reason you're doing this. You're too young to end up in a life like this."

"But be gay, do crime," Janus heard themself say. 

They should probably shut up until they could think clearly again.

The Duke snorted. 

Janus couldn't see Patton's eyes behind the mask but they could imagine how confused he looked.

Great.

This was going well.

"Are you drunk?" Virgil asked.

"No, not really."

"Oh. Okay, then," Virgil nodded slowly. Somehow he sounded a lot less concerned than Janus thought was appropriate.

The world was blurring around them again.

"I think I'm gonna pass out though."

They heard someone answer but it sounded too far away somehow and they could barely even tell who had said it.

Darkness began to cloud their vision.

"Fuck," they tried to say but they had no idea if it actually made it out of their mouth. If it did they couldn't hear it anymore.


	30. Safe and Lonely

Snakekid collapsed suddenly and Roman flinched back.

"What the shit?!" Remus exclaimed.

"What the fuck did you do to them?!" Hoodkiddo yelled and scrambled over to them. "Hey, hey, wake up!"

Patton shook off the shock that had settled over him.

He knelt down next to Snakekid and turned them on their back.

Hoodkiddo hissed at him like a feral cat.

"Look, I get that you don't want me to hurt your friend," Patton put up his hands to appear harmless, "but they need help. If they stay on their stomach they might throw up- Wait shit, they still might - side, side position is best!"

He had to calm down. There were three panicking teens and one unconscious one and as the only adult, it was his duty to calm them down.

A low groan caught his attention.

"Kid?"

Snakekid's unmasked eye slowly opened again. They blinked.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Patton asked.

Their eye focused on him and they nodded after a moment.

"Are you feeling sick? No, don't get up yet. You just passed out, kiddo."

"I... A bit," they mumbled in that way people tended to do when they were afraid of throwing up. Great.

Patton turned to Hoodkiddo. He looked worried about Snakekid. At least they cared about each other.

"Do you have a place close to here?" Patton asked.

Hoodkiddo nodded mutely.

"How close?"

His eyes darted to the side. "Maybe five minutes."

"Okay," Patton looked at Snakekid again. He kind of wanted to take them there, but he doubted either of the vigilantees would trust him enough. Turning back to hoodkiddo he spoke up again. "Can you take them there? Have them sit or lie down and give them some water, okay?"

"Okay," Hoodkiddo sounded grateful for the instructions.

"You, if you continue to feel sick, have a headache or... just if you feel bad, go to the hospital, okay? Just to make sure you're fine."

Snakekid nodded just barely noticeable.

Hoodkiddo helped them slowly stand up and led them out of the alleyway.  
Patton watched them go and sighed.

"Did I hurt them?" Roman's voice made him look up again.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be okay. You didn't mean to run into them," he did his best to sound reasuring.

Roman still looked guilty.

"They'll be fine," Patton repeated and pulled Roman into a hug. He sighed. "Let's just go home, okay? I'm sure we'll get another chance to talk to them. If you want you can apologize to them then."

"Okay," Roman nodded slowly.

"And Remus, please do not cut off your ear," Patton turned to him. "You need that ear, kiddo."

"Don't worry, Pops. I'll keep it. In a jar with alcohol so it doesn't rot!" Remus grinned.

"Just kidding," he added at the alarmed look that crossed Patton's face.

\---

"Here, sit down. I'll get you some water," Virgil glanced around the safehouse. It was one that Papa had only gotten recently, as a gift from Grandpa. It took him a few minutes to find the kitchen and then a few more to find a water glass.  
He filled it with cool water and brought it back to Janus.

They took a few small sips.

"How are you feeling?" Virgil asked, sitting down next to them.

"A bit sick," they mumbled. "Head hurts."

"Do you want to lie down?"

Janus hesitated, then nodded slowly.

"Okay, if you need anything-"

"I'll text you."

"No, I'll stay here! I can just skip-"

"No," Janus laid down. "'m not having you skip y'r aunts wedding. I'll be fine."  
Virgil hesitated.

The words "There is no wedding" burned on his tongue but he held them back. Havin to explain the truth would be worse.

"Okay," he said. "But if you need anything text me."

"Will do," Janus closed their eyes. "Have fun."

Virgil wondered how long it'd take them to realise that they had no idea where they were. The probably still thought that this was his home.

He made sure the door was closed firmly behind him and headed down the alleyway. He still needed to get changed into normal clothes before he could go to Aunt Hannah.

"Hi."

Virgil jumped and swriled around.

There was no one else in the alley way with him.

He frowned.

"Hello."

The same voice.

"Down here, dumbass!"

Virgil glanced down and noticed a racoon next to a trashcan.

"Yeah, me," the racoon said.

"What-?" Virgil blurted out.

"I wanted to ask you something," the racoon continued casually.

"How can you talk?!" Virgil interrupted it.

The racoon glanced up at him. If it was a human, Virgil felt like it would raise an eyebrow.

"Bitch, the real question is, why do you understand me? Anyway, I wanted to ask you, could I stay with you for a night? It's cold as fuck out here and the food sucks. I promise I won't cause any trouble!"

"Why're you talking to me?" Virgil whispered.

"I don't know. There's something weird about you. So can I stay the night?"

Virgil glanced around, almost expecting to spot any hidden cameras.  
But there were no cameras.

The racoon was still there. still watching him expectantly.

"O-okay...," he agreed hesitantly. "But if you pull any shit I'm kicking you out, got it?"

"Cool, cool," the racoon sounded satisfied. "I'll see you later tonight then."

"Do you even know where I live?"

"Of course! Whole town has noticed you by now, kid."

Virgil frowned, once again glancing around. "What do you mean by that?"

"Not the humans, dumbass. My kind, the birds, the rats, possums, you name it! We noticed you. Like I said, there's something weird about you. I've been watching you for days now. And it has affected your kind too. They are just to stupid to really understand. They were under your influence and didn't even realize."

The memory of the singing people flashed through Virgil's mind.

"Look up," the racoon told him, pointing towards the roof with one of it's small hands.

He did.

On the window silts, the roof tops and the fire escapes were birds. Hundrets of birds.

"They noticed too."

When Virgil looked back down, the racoon was gone.

He stumbled a few steps and took of running.

Above him he heard the birds follow.

\---

Logan stared out into the grey sky. The cold was almost visible.

"Boss?" a henchman pulled him out of his thoughts.

"What?" Logan hissed and turned around.

The henchman flinched.

"Er, we brought everything inside and set it up," he awkwardly pointed over his shoulder.

"Right," Logan glanced outside again before following the man into the main room of the building.

He had to admit that it was impressive how quickly they had set up his lab.

"Alright," Logan nodded. "Go home."

The henchman hesitated, expecting him to change his mind any second. Then they scrambled towards the door.

Logan waited until they were gone and sighed.  
He took of his hat, letting it drop to the floor and slowly made his way down stairs to the lab.

All the equipment he'd had at home before was now here.

'Home' had grown too quiet to work. Or sleep. Or cook, or eat, or live.

So here he was, once again running away from the guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is no longer unbetaed thanks to Unicornofdarkness!


End file.
